Work demand under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) usually drops when better-paying employment opportunities are available with strong economic growth. About 22.80 million individuals demanded work in July under the scheme, down 21.6% from a year earlier, showed the preliminary data compiled by the rural development ministry. With this, the work demand contracted for a ninth straight month through July, showed the data.
The individuals represented 18.90 million households in July, down 19.5% from a year before and 28.4% from the previous month.
Sequentially, too, fewer people sought work and their number dropped 33.4% in July from the previous month. The economy grew at a higher-than-anticipated pace of 8.2% in the last fiscal year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast India will remain the world’s fastest-growing major economy in the current fiscal year and the next, with rates of expansion touching 7% and 6.5%, respectively, more than double the global average.
Bountiful rains in July
Normal seasonal rains cause the typical large-scale migration of rural workers into crop sowing, reducing demand for unskilled jobs under the NREGS. Erratic rains in July last year had kept up demand for NREGS work. But the situation reversed this year, with plentiful seasonal showers in July narrowing the 11% rainfall deficit witnessed in June.
The data showed fewer individuals submitted work demands in key states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana in July. The preliminary data get revised as and when updated information flows in.