New Delhi: In comparison to the 2021-22 financial year, the number of households that sought work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme in this financial year of 2022-23 have dropped by nearly 16%. While 72.5 million households obtained work in 2021-22 fiscal, that number has come down to 61.1 households in the current financial year.During the pandemic years, however, the number of households that had sought work under MREGA had peaked. In 2020-21, the number stood at 75.5 million, and 72.5 million in the financial year 2021-22. This was largely attributed to the return of migrants from big cities to villages and the lack of employment opportunities due to the nationwide lockdown.Financial yearNumber of households (in million)Number of individuals (in million)2018-1952.777.72019-2054.878.82020-2175.5111.92021-2272.5106.12022-23*61.186.4(Source: MREGA website; *Until March 29, 2023 )Citing data from the MNREGA website, Business Standard reported that in FY23, the average number of days of work provided stood at 47.13 days against the mandated 100 days of work in a year. This figure is among the lowest in recent years. The previous low was 48.4 days in FY20.Financial yearAverage days of work provided2018-1950.882019-2048.402020-2151.522021-2250.072022-23*47.30(Source: MREGA website; *Until March 29, 2023 )While those who read the statistics favourably say that the declining number of households seeking work under MREGA is a “sign of diminishing distress in rural areas as economic recovery unlocks job opportunities in other areas”, others are not convinced.Civil society members quoted by Business Standard say that the figures are a “reflection of the ‘artificial’ suppression of demand the government has been resorting to, particularly in the past few months of FY23 through multiple digital interventions and throttling of budgetary allocation”.“If you consider West Bengal, where work demand has not been recorded due to wage-related imbroglio, straightway another million households will get added on to the number of households that would have worked under the scheme. While elsewhere, interventions, such as mobile phone application (app)-based attendance system and Aadhaar-enabled payments, are preventing many from seeking work, even if they are in need,” Nikhil Dey, founder member, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, tells the newspaper.Against the revised estimates of Rs 90,000 crore in FY23, so far, Rs 99,348.53 crore has been spent on the scheme this fiscal. As a result, Rs 9,000 to Rs 11,000 crore will be carried forward to the next year as pending dues.Activists working with NREGA workers also blame the falling numbers on approaches being adopted by the government to process payments and manage workflows. NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a grassroots-level worker group, had written to the Union government sometime back stating that it should consider support to social audits and participatory anti-corruption measures rather than relying on “technological fixes”. “…the central government has taken refuge in technological fixes that have proven useless at best, such as the questionable Aadhaar Payment Bridge System to corruption in the scheme,” the letter had said.The Morcha had also criticised the mobile phone app-based attendance system. It had said there is evidence from the ground to demonstrate that in some cases, workers had lost 50% of their wages due to technical glitches in the app. They had also told the government many women worksite supervisors have had to take loans to buy smartphones to use the app.
