Net zero gain for the job guarantee programme in the interim budget for 2024

The rural employment project is allocated ₹86,000 crore in the 2024 Budget, a whopping 43.33% increase from the previous Budget. However, the Union Rural Development Ministry reports that the programme has already cost ₹88,309 crore in total.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been allocated ₹86,000 crore; this represents an increase of ₹26,000 crore in the budget for the scheme for the financial year 2024–25 over the 2023–24 Budget estimates, although it remains the same as the revised estimates for the current financial year (2023–24). Therefore, the rural employment scheme’s net gain can be negative or even zero.

According to data on the Union Rural Development Ministry website, ₹88,309.72 crore has been spent on the scheme in total to far. As of February 1, some estimates place the Center’s wage debt to the State governments at ₹16,000 crore.

According to the government, MGNREGS is a dynamic programme with cyclically paid dues. However, the Centre has stopped the plan in West Bengal for the past two years, citing corruption in the program’s execution. The State is owed by the Centre close to ₹7,000 crore.

However, the 2024 Budget deviates from the ongoing pattern of cutting the program’s funding. Just ₹60,000 crore was allotted for the initiative in the 2023 Budget, which was 18% less than the ₹73,000 crore Budget forecasts and 33% less than the ₹89,000 crore revised estimates for the financial year 2023–2024.

However, the academics and activists claimed that the funding was still far less than what was needed to carry out the plan effectively. To ease it, though, no action is necessary. A straightforward computation reveals that, given the 5.6 crore homes enrolled in the initiative, this amount can cover, at best, 25 to 30 days of labour annually. Professor Rajendran Narayanan works.

The allocation carries on the tradition of allocating 15–20% of the budget to pay off outstanding debt, which in this instance includes ₹7,000 crore that is owing to the government of West Bengal. “A critical ₹3 lakh crore is required to meet the employment needs of enrolled households under MGNREGS.

The allotted budget, however, is a pitiful ₹86,000 crore, far less than what is needed. The amount looks increasingly insufficient in light of the unpaid debt in West Bengal that needs to be paid off, the increased workload that the State’s employees are expected to work this year, and the previous pattern of allocating 15–20% of the budget to paying off past dues. Chakradhar Buddha, who is connected to LibTech India, an association of scholars and activists, stated that this deficiency gives rise to grave concerns since it not only compromises the promised right to work under MGNREGS but also grossly violates this fundamental entitlement.