Holes in the safety net

Context: Persistent delays in MGNREGA payments are worsening pandemic precarity.

Significance of MGNREGA:

• Acted as a shock absorber during the first wave of the pandemic: Its functioning hinges on sufficient budget allocation, reliable payment systems, and ease of access to wages.

Challenges faced by MGNREGA:

• Reduced funding: Government of India (GoI) not only reduced the MGNREGA budget this year but also neglected it in subsequent relief measures post the second wave.
• Delayed work: As per official data, only 26% of the transactions of the first quarter of this financial year were credited within the stipulated seven-day period by the GoI.
• The GoI took 26 days on average to process the transactions in the second stage.
•  In a previously conducted study across ten states, we found that Stage 2 alone was taking more than 50 days.
• These delays were completely unaccounted for as they were not reflected in the MGNREGA MIS.
• India boasted 4,355 crore digital retail transactions in 2020- 21 as per RBI data. These are usually completed within a day, if not in a few minutes. In comparison, MGNREGA transactions, which are only 1.6 per cent in the volume of these, get routinely delayed.