Covid in villages, MNREGS demand sees sharp fall in May from yr earlier than

As villages had been hit within the second wave of Covid-19, demand for unskilled work beneath the MNREGS which had skyrocketed in the course of the first wave final yr additionally got here down sharply.
In May, about 2.18 crore households availed the scheme, 34% lower than the three.30 crore households which had accomplished so in the identical month final yr. The determine for May 2021 was virtually the identical as for pre-Covid May 2019, when 2.10 crore households had signed up for work underMNREGS.
The MNREGS demand was additionally simply marginally greater than for April 2021, when 2.12 crore households availed of the scheme.
An evaluation of information obtainable on MNREGS portal until June 15 exhibits that the May decline was uniform for all states and Union territories besides Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Assam, Punjab and Jharkhand. The knowledge isn’t obtainable for the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
In reality, in 15 states and UTs, the MNREGS demand in May was lesser than in May 2019, together with Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Puducherry, Kerala, Rajasthan, Andaman and Nicobar, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Assam.
Among the main states that has seen the sharpest decline is Uttar Pradesh, with simply 8.08 lakh households availing of the MNREGS in May this yr in comparison with 47.29 lakh in May 2020 — a fall of 83%. Compared to May 2019, when the determine stood at 11.33 lakh households, it’s a fall of 29%.
A UP authorities official mentioned Covid-19 was one of many causes, declaring, “When cases were rising in the rural belt, 1-1.5 lakh people were working daily at MNREGS sites across the state. As the cases came down, the number went up to 7.5 lakh people per day.”
On June 26 final yr, when the state recorded its highest single-day attendance for MNREGS, that quantity stood at 62 lakh at work websites, the official added.
Kerala has additionally seen an enormous MNREGS decline — seeing an 83% fall in households in May this yr in comparison with May 2020.

In May final yr, UP had led the nation in most households availing the NREGS, adopted by Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. While Andhra nonetheless ranked excessive in May 2021, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana at the moment are within the prime three.