Work demand up 89% under MGNAREGA in April month: Current Affairs Special Series

Team Adda247 and BankersAdda are here with a Current Affairs Special Series for SBI and IBPS interview 2021.  In this series, candidates will be introduced to current affairs topics daily, which will not only improve their general awareness but also will ensure that the candidates do not lack if any current affairs topic is asked in the interview. Today’s Current Affairs topic is Work demand up 89% under MGNAREGA in April month.

Work demand up 89% under MGNAREGA in April month

The rural employment guarantee scheme MGNAREGA has seen an increased demand for work by 89% to 2.54 crore households in April. Last year it was 1.34 crore thus this year’s April month shut up the highest demand for work under the scheme.

The top government officials said about this scenario that, the rural development ministry is monitoring the current situation and MGNAREGA is a demand-driven scheme and funds will be given as and when required. The government of India has allocated Rs.73, 000 crores to the scheme in 2021-22, which is less than the previous allocation of Rs.1.11 lakh crore. The average demand for work in April since 2013 is 2.39 crore. According to experts the surge in demand for work is from both rural and urban workers. Rural incomes reduced significantly due to disruption in farm activities while urban workers were migrating to rural homes in search of work under the scheme due to slowdown in economic activities across the country. Experts believe that the next quarter would be even more challenging because of surging rates of unemployment and a drop in labor force participation rates in the country.

MGNAREGA:

Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. It is a social security law that gives a guarantee to people for their ‘right to work’. This act was introduced by the UPA government (PM-Manmohan Singh) and implemented in September 2005.

It comes under the Ministry of Rural development – current Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar.