Unemployment in poll-bound UP falls sharply thanks to MNREGA

MUMBAI: Unemployment in poll bound Uttar Pradesh has fallen sharply, probably a reason to believe BJP will be leading in the state, thanks largely to a sharp rise in the number of beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme or MNREGA.

An analysis by State Bank of India research team shows that among the major states, unemployment dipped sharply in poll bound Uttar Pradesh in the same period from 17.1 per cent in August 2016 to 2.9 per cent in February. At the all India level, unemployment declined from 9.5 per cent in August’16 to merely 4.8 per cent in February’17.

The figures are estimates arrived at by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) from employment status data collected from its members of over 115 years. The sample is a set of randomly selected households.

A major contributing factor is allocations to the number of households under MNREGA has doubled from 83 lakh households to 167 lakh households. MNREGA is social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. It guarantees 100 days employment for a household in rural areas and the work is mainly in rural infrastructure projects supported by the government.

“ Under MNREGA, Uttar Pradesh is showing a sharp rise in number of projects allocated under rural drinking water, Anaganwadi and Water conservation and harvesting, which is the trend at the national level as well ”said S K Ghosh, group chief economic advisor at State Bank of India. “We believe this decline is primarily due to government’s efforts in providing new employment opportunities in rural areas. “ he added

The number of projects com completed under MGNREGA increased by 40% to 50.5 lakh in FY’17 so far compared to 36 lakh in FY’16, MNREGA data shows. Notable increase was registered in the works of Anganwadi (166%),drought proofing (158%), rural drinking water (698%) and water conservation & harvesting (142%). Allocations for MNREGA in the union budget rose 23% for FY’18 to Rs 47,499 from Rs 38500 crore in FY’17.