A job not done

As multiple states launch urban employment guarantee schemes, the need for a Central Act similar to MGNREGA becomes stronger

- RAJU SAJWAN, K A SHAJI

TILL THE middle of last year, Sarju Devi's family lived a comfortable life by selling milk from her 10 cows. But things turned for the worse in September 2022, when six of her cows died within a week due to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease, a highly contagious viral infection that killed over 76,000 cattle in the state alone, as per government estimates released in March 2023. Currently, only two of her cows are giving milk, which, coupled with the ever-rising fodder prices, means that the family in Rajasthan's Ajmer city is not earning enough from their traditional work. "Still, our income has not dipped by much," says Devi. This has been possible because of a recent state government scheme that promises 100 days of assured unskilled employment to all urban dwellers who demand work, similar to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Launched in September 2022, the Indira Gandhi Shahari Rozgar Yojana (IGRY) is implemented by urban local bodies, such as municipal corporations, councils and nagar panchayats, who in turn hire educated youngsters as rozgar sahayaks (employment assistants) to sensitise people about the scheme and mates to oversee worksites. By enrolling under it, Devi now works as a caretaker at a stray cattle shed run by the Ajmer Municipal Corporation in the city's Panchsheel area. There are at least four other women working at the centre who lost their cattle to lumpy skin disease.

Rajasthan is the most recent state to launch an urban employment guarantee scheme, on the lines of MGNREGA. Two other states, Jharkhand and Odisha, started a similar programme in 2020 after the first wave of the coVID-19 pandemic, which saw mass-scale reverse migration from urban to rural areas due to the unavailability of jobs. Kerala was the first state to launch an urban employment guarantee scheme in 2011 to arrest unemployment. It was followed by Himachal Pradesh in 2019.