I am as keen as most of us to learn as to how the government would tackle the lack of creation of jobs, which has landed the youth at the door of the political parties as restive cadres, ready to protest at the drop of a hat. The growing fiscal deficit and massive borrowings might restrain the government in expanding their selling, which also could witness more PSUs under the hammer.
A report from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said India suffered economic losses of $80 billion during the 20 years of 1998 to 2017. Climate change costs India $10 billion every year: Government climate change is projected to impact agricultural productivity with increasing severity from 2020 to the end of the century. By 2030, it may need 70 million tonnes more of food grains than the expected production in 2016-17.
The economic survey, in its last mid-year report, says “estimates indicate that currently, India incurs losses of about $ 9-10 billion annually due to extreme weather events. Of these, nearly 80% of losses remain uninsured”. It pointed out that 2014 floods in Kashmir cost more than $ 15 billion and Cyclone Hudhud the same year cost $ 11 billion.
I firmly believe that in the absence of the private manufacturing sector and the challenging prospects of agriculture, the onus of providing jobs by the government becomes paramount importance. The government of India initiated a National Rural Employment Act in 2005 and made the MGNREGA the implementing scheme, the largest of its kind in the world, guaranteeing 100 days of unskilled manual work to all rural households in India. Last year, about 235 crore person-days of work were generated under the scheme.
MGNREGA, this year has an allotment of Rs.61084 crores. Assets created under NREGS include works related to natural resource management that include water conservation, land development, irrigation, etc. Besides these, dams, irrigational channels, check dams, ponds, wells’ Anganwadi’ assets are also constructed under this scheme.
However, despite the sum of Rs.5.34,483 crores spent on MGNREGA since its inception, the assets created though are very little. Because India is repeatedly reeling under severe drought conditions in several parts of the country, it becomes imperative that the creation of the assets focus on reversing the adversities of the climate impact on the rural folks. It can be done by acquisition of several intermittent lands amid farms, and water bodies are created around waterbodies intensive forestation of a few square kilometres are created, which will ensure appropriate usage of MGNREGA funds in quality employment, assets creation and long-term social benefits.
Every job created by government initiatives and from funds like MGNREGA must address the societal cause. Many thousands of kilometres of Highways and rail tracks, including those for the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor will see millions of trees chopped off, though such calculated destructions are unavoidable. We should aptly compensate by planting a billion trees and creating an adequate number of water bodies as a long-term investment in the nation-build.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
