Role of MGNREGA in Generating Employment Opportunity in India – A Study of During Covid-19

Narendra Shukla; Varsha Jha

Narendra Shukla Professor & Director, Dept. of MBA Gyan Ganga Institute of Technology & Sciences, Jabalpur (M.P.),
Varsha Jha Asst. Professor, Dept. of MBA Gyan Ganga Institute of Technology & Sciences, Jabalpur (M.P.)

Keywords: Employment generation, rural development, MGNREGA, pre-covid, during covid, post-covid

Abstract

The foundation of Indian economy is agriculture. To remove unemployment and remove poverty from rural areas government launched various scheme. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was established in 2006, as the first step toward employment generation in rural India and provides 100 days’ work guarantee to Individuals and households under ‘right to work’ involved in agriculture and seasonal employment in a financial year within the radius of 5 km. It helps in reducing poverty in rural India and raises the economic status of workers. MGNREGA provides employment opportunities to women workers and decreases migration from urban areas to rural areas. The study tries to focus on pre covid and post covid era in employment generation through MGNREGA. The secondary data of last five years is used to perform the study. The finding of the study show decline in employment opportunity in pre-covid and post-covid era but shows increase in during pandemic and also increasing women employment percentage. MGNREGA through its various categories of projects provides autonomy to unskilled workers to choose their preference of work. MGNREGA was reflected as the world’s greatest and striving programme of social security and public works. The data collected through the secondary source by various newspaper articles, mgnrega website and research papers. Maximum numerical data has been collected through MGNREGA website. The analysis shows that there is an increase in employment generation under MGNREGA scheme during covid 19in rural areas and the reason is migrationof rural people from urban areas. The statistics also portrays that there is an continuous increase in the wage rate system under MGNREGA. The main idea of MGNREGA is to scrutinize the reliability and success is of the employment policy. It is really difficult to reflect that any other programme worked well with potential in employment generation for rural people in earning their livelihood.