New Delhi: Even though millions of migrant workers moved to their native states and got employed under the rural job guarantee scheme when the country faced one of the longest 'unplanned' lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Economic Survey 2021-22, which has been tabled in both the Houses of Parliament on Monday, has stated that there is no relation between the movement of migrant labour and employment as well as demand for jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural National Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
During the pandemic-induced lockdowns, millions of migrant workers and day-wagers fled from urban economic centres to their home states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, etc. However, the largest numbers of migrant workers were from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
"During the nationwide lockdown, the aggregate demand for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) work peaked in June 2020 and has thereafter stabilized. During the second COVID-wave, demand for MGNREGS employment reached the maximum level of 4.59 crore persons in June 2021," -the Economic Survey said.
"In contrast, the demand for MGNREGS employment has been higher for migrant recipient states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for most months in 2021 over 2020. There are still other states that do not neatly fit into this categorisation. Therefore, the "relationship between MGNREGS employment and movement of migrant labour during the last two years cannot be conclusively determined", and it requires further research," the Survey said.
"After accounting for seasonality, the demand at an aggregate level still seems to be above the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 and for some states like Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, the demand for work under MGNREGS has reduced to below the pre-pandemic levels during the last few months," the Survey said.
"Intuitively, one may expect that higher MGNREGS demand may be directly related to the movement of migrant labour i.e. source states would be more impacted," the Survey said, adding that the state-level analysis shows that for many migrant source states like West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, the MGNREGS employment in most months of 2021 has been lower than the corresponding levels in 2020.