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MGNREGA, also expanded as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a scheme operated by the Central Government of India by revamping the old scheme and renaming it. The main objective of this scheme is to provide social security by assuring a minimum of 100 days of work per year to the families. To benefit from this scheme, the adult members must be prepared to deliver unskilled labour-intensive work. Background of MGNREGA The government was operating schemes like Jawahar Rozgaar Yojana, Food for Work Programme, and Sampurna Grameen Rozgaar Yojna. Based on the observations from this scheme, the government launched Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act first in the state of Maharashtra in the year 1970. During its launch, the scheme was called as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The scheme was introduced in the state during the period when Vasant Rao Naik was the chief minister. This act came to the aid of millions of farmer families in the state. The planning commission eventually accepted this scheme and extended throughout the nation. These acts helped the government gather some useful inputs needed to work in the lines of programs like ‘Rural Manpower Programme’ ‘Crash Scheme for Rural Employment’ ‘Drought Prone Area Programme’ and ‘Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Scheme’. Each of these schemes provided a useful ground for the government to plan newer schemes in an efficient way setting right the drawbacks of the earlier ones. The principal objectives of all these schemes are wage employment, food security, and producing valuable assets. Later renamed as MNREGA, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a significant member in the lines of these schemes. Important <keyword id="8133544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="features-of-mgnrega">features of MGNREGA</keyword> 1. Providing job security to the adult members in families for not less than 100 days in a year. 2. Creating permanent assets like wells, ponds, roads and others for the welfare of the community. 3. Providing employment opportunities to the applicants within a radius of 5 kilometres. 4. Providing minimum wages in order to assure security to families. 5. Providing security to the income of families by assuring unemployment allowances if work is not provided for about 15 days from the date of application. How to enroll in MGNREGA? Application to this job must be given in writing. The application must include the registration number of the job card, date from which the applicant is seeking employment, and the number of days for which the applicant wants the job. The application must give the names of the adult members in the family who are coming forward to do unskilled manual work along with the details like age, gender, and caste. The filled-in applications must be submitted to the Gram Panchayat. For registration under this scheme, an individual can appear personally and make a request. The authorities in the Gram Panchayat will verify the details in the application and decide if the case in the application is genuine and deserving to get the benefit. Once verified, every household will be given a unique registration number.

What is Magnerga and how can one Enroll in the scheme

<ul><li>Job creation will not just help solve widening inequalities but also help the Indian economy address the problem of weak domestic demand.</li><li>A big part of this is in creating better paying employment for those at the bottom of the pyramid who are engaged in low paid informal work arrangements.</li><li>This can be done by boosting <keyword id="92538" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="MNREGA">MNREGA</keyword> allocation, creating productive job opportunities in the manufacturing sector by leveraging the PLI scheme and providing support to micro and small enterprises.</li></ul>It is now abundantly clear that a disproportionate burden of the COVID-19 shock has been borne by those at the lower end of the income distribution. Especially for those engaged in informal work arrangements. As we lay out a roadmap of revival and recovery for the Indian economy in the budget, we need to focus on creating productive employment opportunities that provide decent wages and offer some degree of job security for wage earners and self-employed. <div type="image" title="Rural wage growth has flattened(1)" msid="80561918" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rural wage growth &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> This is important, not just to address widening inequalities, but also to overcome the problem of inadequate aggregate demand. Reviving domestic demand emanating from those at the lower end of the income distribution — who have a higher marginal propensity to consume — will play a vital role in spurring private investment which has been steadily declining over the last decade and has fallen to 27.6% of GDP. Much of the focus thus far has been on addressing supply-side bottlenecks and structural factors that have impeded private investment, but now greater attention needs to be paid to the demand side factors. This will require a mix of various strategies. MNREGA needs more funds and higher wages To begin with, there is a need to increase the budgetary allocation for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the one programme which has worked as an effective countercyclical automatic stabilizer during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2020-21, the budgetary allocation for MNREGA was ₹61,500 crores. Subsequently, an additional ₹40,000 crores were allocated under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat programme. <div type="image" title="MNREGA allocation" msid="80562411" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;MNREGA allocation&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> This allocation needs to be significantly enhanced as demand for MNREGA works is rising rapidly and several states are falling short of funds to provide work. Additionally, the government would do well to increase the number of working days offered under the programme from 100 to 150 days — as permitted under the architecture of the programme. Further, given that MNREGA wage rates of at least 17 of the 21 major states are even lower than the state minimum wage for agriculture, there is a need to bring the former in line with the latter. This will help fuel rural demand, from those at the bottom of the distribution. <div type="image" title="MNREGA_edited" msid="80566452" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Workers protesting for more work days under MNREGA and other demands in Patna&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Government needs to create more productive job opportunities Concomitantly, the imperative of accelerating the pace of productive job opportunities, in particular, in the manufacturing sector cannot be overemphasized. The government has announced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme amounting to ₹ 2 lakh crores — approximately 1% of GDP — over the next five years covering 14 sectors. To get the maximum bang for the buck, it might be worth considering linking these incentives not just to firms' production but also to employment creation on the firms’ payroll. This could potentially give a huge boost to productive job creation. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> However, it needs to be recognized that such incentives alone cannot give an impetus to manufacturing production and employment. As India returns to a strategy of import substitution, many of the firms availing these incentives are likely to find it difficult to integrate in global value chains and procure reasonably priced imported inputs, thereby hurting their competitiveness. For the success of PLI and for an export promotion strategy, there needs to be serious rethink on the increase in import duties which we have witnessed in the budget over the last three years. Smaller businesses should not be ignored While the PLI scheme focuses on large formal enterprises, it is important to note that the firm landscape is dominated by micro and small enterprises which have struggled to remain afloat during this period. Several of these enterprises are in the informal sector and have been unable to access the credit support offered by the government thus far. It would be worthwhile putting in place an enterprise support scheme for informal sector firms that can provide them some immediate relief. <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> Undeniably, this is a challenging task given that these firms are not registered. We would need to find creative ways of supporting informal enterprises through financial and monetary measures such as reducing their operating costs by offering waivers or deferred payments for public services such as electricity, water or rent. In the medium term, however, it is important to focus on enhancing productivity of informal enterprises which will in turn enable an organic process of formalization. This will require providing customized technical and business skills, financial services, enterprise support and training to better compete in the markets. <div type="image" title="snapshot-1611900385290" msid="80562704" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Employment across India&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The provision of local infrastructure facilities that cater to the specific needs of the local enterprises and clusters also plays a vital role in not just enhancing the productive capacity of informal enterprises but also in boosting employment creation in local communities in the short-term. While the budget is likely to focus on infrastructure creation to boost employment, it is important to note that big ticket infrastructural projects have a long gestation period and are capital intensive. They alone may not generate the desired employment benefits in the short run. Therefore, it would be prudent to also pursue more modest smaller projects at the local level to generate stronger multiplier effects in the local economy. The budget will expectedly lay out several measures to boost growth. However, it is imperative that maximisation of employment, and not just maximisation of GDP take centre stage in the budget. Growth estimates from the second quarter for FY 2020-21 suggest that the recovery witnessed by the Indian economy is being led by profits and not wages. However, this incipient recovery cannot be sustained unless higher profits lead to higher investment demand. The state of the labour market, both in the formal and informal sector, will play a crucial role in driving domestic demand and thereby private investment. *The author is a Senior Fellow at ICRIER. Views expressed here are personal. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/glee-s-t-january-2021-gst-collection-may-have-beat-the-december-record/articleshow/80512714.cms">Glee.S.T! January 2021 GST collection may have beat the December record</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/prime-minister-narendra-modi-signals-big-defence-budget-allocation-for-make-in-india/articleshow/80511082.cms">India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi may just have signalled a big allocation for defence equipment manufacturing, 3 days before the budget</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/india-needs-to-add-massive-amount-of-solar-and-wind-power-capacity-this-year-to-meet-its-first-target/articleshow/80496138.cms">India needs to add massive amount of solar and wind power capacity this year to meet its first target</a>

India needs more ‘productive’ jobs and higher wages to address its demand problem

New Delhi, Dec 19 () Trade unions urged the government to provide minimum wage of Rs 21,000, minimum pension of Rs 6,000 under Employees' Pension Scheme and tax exemption on annual income of up to Rs 10 lakh in a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
The unions have also raised concerns over rising unemployment in the country, saying "employment generation has nose-dived in recent period".
During the meeting, they suggested that massive public investment in infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture would generate employment and the Union Budget should give it a priority and allocate necessary funds for this.
They demanded that all vacant sanctioned posts in various government departments, including railways, PSUs and autonomous institutions, should be filled through fresh recruitment.
They also suggested the finance minister that ban on creation of new positions and mandatory reduction of government posts should be lifted.
They noted that denial of level playing field to many PSUs ( BSNL, MTNL, ITI etc) had put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.
The unions also pointed out that the merger of BSNL-MTNL and voluntary retirement (which is actually forced retirement) of almost 79,000 workers is just opposed to the idea of job creation.
Lodging their protest against fixed term employment (FTE), the unions said the provision of FTE should be done away with, and concerned notification should be rescinded forthwith.
They also raised the issue of prise rise saying that the government should ban speculative forward trading in essential commodities and take steps to curtail hoardings along with strengthening public distribution system. 
On disinvestments and strategic sale of public sector units, they said that budgetary support should be provided for the revival of potentially viable sick PSUs.
It also suggested that the finance minister to refrain from strategic sale of viable PSUs in core sectors like steel, coal, mining, heavy engineering, pharmaceuticals, dredging, civil aviation, financial institution, among others.
Under the strategic sale, the government becomes minority stakeholder by reducing its share below 50 per cent of total equity.
The union have asked to extend the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA to urban areas also and enhance minimum employment guarantee to 200 days in a year.
They also lodged protest against foreign direct investment in crucial sectors, saying FDI should not be allowed in railways, defence production, financial sector, retail trade etc.
Trade unions also suggested to stop the labour law amendments that curtail the basic and trade union rights of workers and provide unhindered 'hire &amp; fire' facilities to employers.
They also demanded that the threshold limit for coverage of establishments under the retirement fund body EPFO should be reduced to 10 workers from 20 at present.
Gratuity should be calculated on 30 days wages instead of 15 days of wages per completed year of service without any ceiling, they said.
The government should not make Aadhaar linking mandatory, the unions added.
On the income tax exemption, they urged that the ceiling for income tax for salaried persons and pensioners should be raised to Rs 10 lakh per year.
Besides, they also demanded that income tax ceiling for senior citizens should be raised to Rs 8 lakh.
All perks and fringe benefits like housing, medical and education facilities and running allowances in railways should be exempted from income tax net totally, they said.
"During the course of meeting, representatives of Trade Unions and Labour Organisations shared their views and suggestions regarding labour and employment issues. Discussions were held on skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of existing labour force. Quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers were discussed," a finance ministry statement said.
It also stated that during the meeting, representatives of trade unions and labour organisations shared their views and suggestions regarding job creation, labour concerns and quality of employment issues.
They also emphasised quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers in detail besides the need for streamlining various schemes to have better results, it added.
Along with the finance minister, the meeting was attended by Anurag Singh, Thakur, Minister of State for Finance &amp; Corporate Affairs, Rajeev Kumar and top officials of labour and finance ministries. KKS BAL

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What is Magnerga and how can one Enroll in the scheme

BI India Bureau

India needs more ‘productive’ jobs and higher wages to address its demand problem

Radhicka Kapoor

TUs urges FM to hike income tax ceiling, minimum wages, pension

PTI

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