Looking at the data of the person
days of jobs created in each district across the immediate aftermath of the
lockdown under the MGNREGA gives an understanding of the pressure on the rural
livelihoods. While there are several factors that indicate the pressure on rural
livelihoods, this could be used to understand the challenge better.
Tamil Nadu as a State has several
ways of looking at the various regions based on the livelihood options
available there. The Northern belt that is influenced by the Chennai and its surrounding
industrial belt, the central belt of predominantly agricultural activity driven
districts, the delta districts in the east that are again driven by the
agricultural economy, the west with its vast industrial zone and the south with
a mix of abundance of natural resources and dry land farming. Each of these
regions pans several districts.
Something interesting was
observed during the early days after the lockdown and even more so after the
lockdown was partially lifted in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu – a
region where unless there is an excessive drought or industrial layoff, the
uptake in MGNREGA is rather low. In the moth after the lockdown the region saw
several more jobs being sought by the labour force in this region, however on
the easing of the lockdown, the pressure came down immediately and in
comparison to the previous year, it actually was lesser! This indicates that
much of the agricultural labour who may be conventionally employed in
agricultural activity during the beginning of the season, have been observed in
the industrial sector now. Similar trends have been observed in other regions
of the State as well.
Ms. Varshini Kaliappan, an
ex-Intern at SLI and a friend of the Institution has been helping to understand
the data and draw inference from the same by tabulating the data. SLI will
bring out a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the MGNREGA data in the
State based on her study as a report soon with several insights. Meanwhile,
here is a sneak preview on the same, just looking at the regional variations in
job demand under the scheme during various months in a year over the past 5
years including till last month.
Inference
·
In
the financial year of 2020-21, immediately after the nation-wide lockdown
there’s a huge dip in employment provided across all the districts in 4 regions
of Tamil Nadu in the month of April.
·
Immediately
after the partial relaxation of lockdown the month from May to July saw a
slight increase in the employment provided pattern. The reason might be due to
reverse migration from cities to villages made them to seek work under the
employment guaranteed scheme.
·
In
the month of August there was an overall dip in the employment provided pattern
across all the districts in the northern region; the reason might be people engaging
themselves in farm operations and as agricultural wage laborers as August was
the start of new agricultural season.
·
In
the month of September, there’s an increase in employment provided pattern;
reason might be also agricultural sector was not able to provide work for the
increased labour force due to reverse migration after nationwide lockdown. In
predominant agricultural districts such as Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram,
Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam the reason might be, a possible drop in the
overall agricultural labour generation activity or increased mechanization or
shifting to less labour intensive cropping systems.
·
In
the month of October, there’s a decrease in the employment provided pattern.
The reason might be that a section of migrants has returned back to cities
after the end of nationwide lockdown, and more employment opportunities in
industrial sector because of the absence of migrant workers from UP, Bihar and
other northern states.
*Data for this study comes from https://nrega.nic.in/
– Varshini Kaliappan, ex-Intern, SLI and Ramasubramanian, Consultant
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