- MGNREGA should be converged with other schemes of the government. For example, Green India initiative, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan etc.
- There has been a delay in the completion of works under MGNREGA and inspection of projects has been irregular. Also, there is an issue of quality of work and asset creation under MGNREGA.
- After the additional Rs 40000 crore allocated, the budget for 2020-21 is now above Rs 100k crore.
- This is the highest allocation for MGNREGA in any year since the passage of the law. However, the allocation, which amounts to 47 % of the GDP continues to be much lower than the World Bank recommendations of 1.7 % for the optimal functioning of the program.
- There is a need to strengthen the demand-driven aspects of MGNREGA through a focus on local level social audits, funding and tracking of outcomes.
- State governments must ensure that public work gets started in every village. Workers turning up at the worksite should be provided work immediately, without much delay.
- Local bodies must proactively reach out to returned and quarantined migrant workers and help those in need to get job cards.
- In order to improve transparency and the accountability of Sarpanchs, it is recommended that MGNREGA projects be tracked right down to the village-level and not just the Gram Panchayat level as is the practice now.
- The Supreme Court in the Swaraj Abhiyan vs. Union of India case stated that said that the delay caused in stage-2 was not taken into account for the purpose of payment of compensation.
- Incorporation of ICT infrastructure at grassroots level, so that the data is available in public leading to better transparency and accountability.
- Social audits, mandated by law under MGNREGA, should be strengthened to reduce the data suppression and under-representation of job demand.
It is in some of these contexts that strengthening an existing universal programme such as the MGNREGA would have been a prudent move instead of introducing a hasty targeted cash transfer programme. At a time of such acute distress, there is a need to the Central government to improve the existing universal infrastructure of the MGNREGA before plunging into a programme pretending to augment farmers’ income. MGNREGA is a bottom-up, people-centred, demand-driven, self-selecting and rights-based programme. Thus, MGNREGA remains crucial for integrated resource management and livelihoods generation perspective.
