• One-third of the way through the financial year, government data shows that the MGNREGA scheme has used up almost half its allocated funds.
• Its spending has been more than ₹48,500 crores out of the expanded ₹1 lakh crore allocations announced following the COVID-19 outbreak.

Try this question for mains:

Q.Discuss how the MGNREG Scheme has been providing a minimum basic income since the Covid pandemic. Also discuss how it can prove to be a game-changer if coupled with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

About MGNREGA

• The MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.
• This is labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘Right to Work’.
• The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Its objectives

• To enhance the livelihood security of the rural poor by generating wage employment opportunities.
• To create a rural asset base which would enhance productive ways of employment, augment and sustain a rural household income.

Features of the Scheme

• MGNREGA is unique in not only ensuring at least 100 days of employment to the willing unskilled workers, but also in ensuring an enforceable commitment on the implementing machinery i.e., the State Governments, and providing a bargaining power to the labourers.
• The failure of provision for employment within 15 days of the receipt of job application from a prospective household will result in the payment of unemployment allowance to the job seekers.
• Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
• Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.

Also read:

[Burning Issue] Reorienting MGNREGA in times of COVID

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