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The MGNREGS, introduced by the UPA-I government, conferred an economic right to the deprived: employment could not be refused and if it was not provided within a certain period then the person seeking employment had to be paid compensation. It was, in short, a demand-driven programme: employment had to be provided on demand.
PM Narendra Modi had been opposed to the MGNREGS to start with, and even though his government has not dared to abolish it altogether, it has strangulated it through low allocations. In 2019-20, the actual expenditure on the scheme was Rs 71,687 crore. For 2020-21, however, the budgetary allocation was brought down to Rs 61,500 crore; but that was the year when the lockdown had led to a massive trek back to the villages of lakhs of migrant labourers from the cities who suddenly found themselves without work, without incomes and without shelter. The only thing that saved them when they returned home was the MGNREGS.
There was a sudden increase in the demand for work under the scheme and the government was forced to increase the allocation under the scheme to Rs 1,11,500 crore.
But the next year, i.e. 2021-22, the budgetary allocation was again cut to Rs 73,000 crores, a full Rs 38,500 crores less than the previous year. This could have been justified, even if partially, if the economy had recovered and if jobs had become available to the same extent as before the lockdown. But it is well known that output (GDP) has barely recovered to the same level as before, and employment still continues to be below the pre-lockdown level because the employment-intensive petty production sector continues to languish.
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