Here’s what a MNREGA for unemployed people in cities may look like
Jan 30, 2021
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Guarantees at least 100 days of work in a year for unskilled workers in rural parts.
As the pandemic took away thousands of jobs in cities..
...experts want a similar scheme for those unemployed in cities too
Aditi Nayar, economist at ICRA, a ratings agency
No matter how much the topic has been debated, MNREGA has helped the rural population find jobs.
Nayar suggested a similar model for urban India
The govt can support the unemployed with urban service provisions, rather than paying blank checks, she said.
Mahesh Vyas CEO of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy believes...
In urban India, we have extremely poor public services, and govt can use this opportunity to “fix” that.
Vyas suggested that urban employment guarantee can focus on these…
“Let’s have enough people in security, judiciary, education, health and other infrastructure related fields.”
Ashwajit Singh MD at IPE Global said the government should create an urban equivalent of MNREGA
“(which) has the potential to create jobs and, provide social security to a large section of the population.”
While the economic recovery started post lockdown, the unemployment is still far from pre-COVID level.
According to CMIE, urban unemployment in December went up to 8.84 percent from 7.07 percent in November.
Even the number of employed people saw a sharp fall of 4.8 million in December to 388.8 million.
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