The rural job guarantee scheme and the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Yojana provided work to less than eight per cent of the migrant workers who had returned home after last year’s lockdown, a study has found.
It has argued that the highly skilled returned migrants may have been uninterested in the unskilled work provided under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and has suggested a broadening of the scope of projects under the scheme.
Published by the University of Bonn in Germany, the findings are significant at a time migrant workers have again begun returning home amid a Covid resurgence in India.
Synopsis
Provisional payroll data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, released on Friday, the number of exits under EPFO stood at 0.28 million in February compared to 0.53 million in January which have been revised upwards from 0.26 million last month.
The net subscribers added under EPFO in December were 0.94 million, 0.69 million in November, 0.90 million in October and 1.23 million in September.
Formal job creation in India maintained its pace with 1.23 million jobs created under the Employees Provident Fund Organisation in February while 1.15 million subscribers were added under the Employees State Insurance scheme. The National Pension Scheme saw second highest addition in the fiscal at 58,250 it in February after April 2020 clocked the highest addition at 64,647.
Why Loan Melas, Cheap Credits Are Bad for Economic and Social Development
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Over the past 50 years and more, one of the key strategies for promoting economic development has been the provision of cheap and directed loans from banks and other formal financial intermediaries.
Towards this end, the priority sectors of the economy have been identified as agriculture, small- and medium-scale industry and exports which are given preference while granting such subsidised loans.
This strategy not only has the backing of government policy, but also that of intellectuals of various hues and of course solid public support. After all, who would forsake something for nothing, or, putting it differently, wealth out of thin air. Impeccable logic, at first glance!