NEW DELHI: About 39% of all job card-holding households registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 were not provided even a single day of work during the Covid-hit 2020-21 period in India’s four states.
These states include Bihar (then ruled by NDA) and Karnataka (BJP-ruled now). In fact, 39% of job-card-holding households were demanding 77 days of work on average but they did not get work even for a single day.
A survey conducted on the impact of ‘The Covid-19 pandemic’ on the MGNREGA in various blocks of the country’s four states by Azim Premji University in partnership with the National Consortium of Civil Organisations and Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD), has made such startling revelations in its report.
The study has also found that despite all these shortcomings, the MGNREGA made a marked difference during the pandemic, protecting the most vulnerable households from significant loss of income as they were able to find some work.