By Shreehari Paliath, IndiaSpend

The Covid-19 pandemic has had the most impact on jobs and livelihoods in the last five years. Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the rural jobs programme which guarantees 100 days of work per household, had become a lifeline for millions of rural workers. A majority of the participants in MGNREGS’s demand-driven work are women. As millions of workers returned to the safety of their homes following the lockdown, the number of people demanding work under MGNREGS swelled to a record 133 million in 2020-21.

While economic growth has stabilised since the peak of the pandemic, India’s employment is largely dominated by poor-quality employment in the informal sector and informal employment, said India Employment Report 2024 by the Institute for Human Development and International Labour Organization. During the past decade, there was only a small increase in the real wages of casual workers and a decline in the real earnings of regular salaried workers and self-employed persons, the report found. The Economic Survey of India 2022-23 has said that “growth in real rural wages has been negative due to elevated inflation”.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the 2024 general election does not mention the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or a specific national minimum wage, but it promises to ensure a review of National Floor Wages from time to time. Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress manifesto stated that the wage under MGNREGS would be increased to 400 per day.

As India elects its 18th Lok Sabha in a seven-phase election lasting more than 40 days, one of the top concerns among voters is unemployment and the availability of jobs. According to the 2024 Lokniti-CSDS pre-poll survey, unemployment was the biggest concern (27%) followed by price rise (23%). More than three in five people felt that getting jobs had become more difficult than it was five years ago. Rural wages have declined, household demand for rural jobs remains higher than five years ago, and the funds allocated remain inadequate to support timely wages, clear arrears, and pay delay compensations, said experts.

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