The Indian government is considering extending the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Agreement scheme to towns and cities to check the lockdown induced unemployment crisis. The scheme when implemented will cost about Rs 350 billion, Sanjay Kumar, a joint secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said.
He also said that the government had been considering this plan for over a year but the pandemic gave it an additional push. MGNREGA offers 100 days guaranteed employment with a daily wage of Rs 202 to the people enrolled in the rural areas. The urban version of the programme will help the daily wage labourers who were pushed into unexpected unemployment and poverty in towns and small cities. The job crunch is expected to continue with the economy shrinking 23.9% last quarter, India’s worst decline since 1996.
