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Impacts of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act NREGA’s effects include a decline in food crop production and the need for urgent improvement to strike a balance between rural employment and food production.

Introduction:

According to the World Bank, more than 30% of Indians live on less than $1 a day, but Indian experts think that the true number of poor people could be much higher. With limited success, previous governments tried a variety of strategies to combat poverty. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, in the opinion of the UPA government, can address that issue. According to them, this can both lessen rural poverty and take advantage of the abundant human resources present in rural India to build the most basic infrastructure and halt the exodus of rural residents to urban areas.

According to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA), any rural household with adult members who are willing to perform unskilled manual labour for a minimum pay of Rs. 80 per day is guaranteed 100 days of employment in a fiscal year. Following an initial expansion of 200 districts, the Central Government gradually announced more territories. Within five years, the entire country was supposed to be covered. Additionally, the government is now raising the daily minimum salary from Rs. 80 to Rs. 100.

The NREGA is a critical step in achieving the right to employment. By creating economic and social infrastructure in rural areas, it is anticipated that people’s security of livelihood will improve over time. The selection of works aims to address the factors that contribute to persistent poverty, such as soil erosion, drought, and deforestation. The NREGA stands out for its strategy of allowing residents to actively participate in the execution of employment guarantee programmes through grama sabhas, social audits, participatory planning, and other initiatives.

What will it cost the nation’s common man?

The abovementioned NREGA scheme has numerous implementation flaws and concerns. In the early stages of its implementation, numerous negative growths, notably in the agricultural sector, are evident. The output of food grains and other key commodities is dramatically reduced as a result of the farming industry’s negative growth. The nation is already paying a high price for this due to the sharp increase in the cost of food and other necessities, which has an impact on everyday living for the average person.

Farming sector’s problems

The farming industry is the backbone of our country and accounts for roughly 70% of all jobs there. Still, throughout Indian history, the farming industry has been neglected. The productivity of agriculture has been steadily declining in recent years.

The agricultural sector has enormous potential for creating jobs and reducing poverty. Any policies in India should be considered from the standpoint of the country’s agricultural industry, and it should be ensured that the farming community’s interests are safeguarded.

Even if all of the country’s people receive complete meals from the farming community, the latter, particularly small, marginal, and landless farmers, who constantly battle for household-level food security, do not receive even half of what they need.

One should not forget that a country like India needs to increase its agricultural sector for sustainable growth, despite the fact that the farming sector is frequently used as the scapegoat for the sake of overall development.

When the sub-sectors of agriculture, such as food processing, milk processing, fertilizer, pesticides, seeds, agricultural implements, tractors, diesel engines, textiles, cold storage, and many more, are expanding at a faster rate, it raises many questions about the policy makers’ deliberate negligence in the farming sector.

90% of farmers are small, marginal, or landless, and their plight is still becoming worse. They are the ones that keep India’s food supply secure while failing to do the same for their own use.

What impact will NREGA have on agriculture?

Even though the NREGA aims to eradicate poverty and unemployment, the vast Indian farming community was not considered in the scheme’s inception.

The current version of NREGA has a number of negative effects on the farming community, including a lack of farm labour, rising labour costs, an inefficient workplace culture, decreased food crop production, etc. It is again another patchwork policy that only considers the vote bank and ignores the country’s fundamental problems. Additionally, it makes the nation’s difficulties much worse.

1. Absence of Farm Laborers:

Obtaining rural labour for agricultural tasks is a challenge for farming communities. Because the majority of the rural workforce is being used / reserved in the NREGA for 100 days of employment, they receive enough income for the remainder of the year and are not required to work the remaining days. The farm labourers are less motivated to work hard in agriculture since they have access to a sluggish working environment through government programmes. Due to a lack of farm labour, farming activities are therefore limited, which will have an impact on agricultural output. Additionally, due to a lack of farm labour, farmers may favour commercial crops over food crops, altering crop patterns.

2. Increased Cost of Farm Labor

The average cost of farm labour is significantly lower than the Rs. 80.00 or Rs. 100.00 covered by the NREGA programme. Following their experience with the higher employment costs under the NREGA programme, farm labourers now want the same range of labour costs for normal farming operations as well. The expense of cultivation and the load on the farmer will both grow due to the higher cost of agricultural labour.

3. The ineffective use of rural labour:

The rural workforce is being used inefficiently and wastefully under the NREGA programme. The majority of the workforce is devoted to projects like flood control, water bodies, and irrigation canal construction. In general, the works’ quality is very bad, and the majority of them are produced purely for decorative purposes.

The hardworking rural labourers are being spoilt by the government programmes’ sluggish work environments. They fail to complete the necessary tasks in the agricultural areas once they adopt this sluggish work culture and impose terms that are inappropriate for farming activities.

4. Small & marginal farmers refusing to engage in farming:

Small and marginal farmers are turning to other businesses or cash crops for their sustainability because the farming industry is already in serious crisis and its viability is already in doubt. Additionally, they frequently stop farming and go to urban areas in search of work prospects or look for jobs within the NREGA programmes themselves.

5. Reduced Production of Food Crops

Small and marginal farmers are forgoing routine farming chores in favour of cash crops rather than food crops or other sources of revenue due to labour shortages, rising labour costs, and inefficient use of rural manpower. The result is a change in the regular crop pattern and a consequent decrease in the production of food crops.

Solution:

It urgently has to be improved in order to balance the production of food crops and rural jobs.

For India’s millions of poor citizens to be protected from unemployment and poverty eradication, more than merely patchwork policies are required. India needs to look beyond vote-bank politics and take action to improve the nation.

As previously said, the farming sector should be considered while developing any significant policies for India. We should not disregard the interests of the farming sector when developing policies aimed at creating jobs and ending poverty.

Modification of the NREGA programme to protect agriculture: The current NREGA programme appears to have been designed without consideration for agriculture.

The NRGEA should be changed in order to enable the farming sector generate employment and food crops in a sustainable fashion in order to protect it.

Utilizing Labor Under the NREGA Program for Farm Work:

100 days of paid work under the NREGA programme must be put to use on farms, with emphasis on growing food crops. Farm Works shall be given top priority in any modifications to the NREGA programme. According to this new idea, all farmers, no matter how big or little, must register their needs for farm labour in the Gram Panchayat.

The Gram Panchayat shall offer the available workforce in accordance with the farmer’s requirements on batches based on the seniority in registration. For example, if 20 farmers are enrolled and 100 labourers are available, the panchayat can assign 10 labourers to each of the first 10 farmers according to seniority. The next day, they can divide the labourers and assign the necessary number of workers to the remaining farmers.

In this way, all of the NREGA scheme’s available personnel will be used effectively while not jeopardizing the interests of the agricultural sector and while also achieving the goals of creating jobs and ending poverty.

Generating spending without increasing employment generation:

With the same amount of funding as before, the government will double the employment opportunities under this new change. The government need not pay the entire compensation of Rs. 100 per day because the NREGA programme will provide the farmers with the necessary labour. Only 50% of the guaranteed salaries may be covered by the government; the remaining 50% must come from the farmers. Thus, the government’s goal of creating jobs paying Rs. 100 per day is also achieved, while at the same time, the farmers are given the necessary labor for the farming industry while only receiving 50% of the income.

Real Employment Creation and the Eradication of Poverty

Only a policy that incorporates the growth of the agricultural sector can truly generate employment and eradicate poverty. As was previously said, about 70% of jobs in India are in the farming industry, hence the only way to truly create jobs is through agricultural endeavors. The only way to end poverty is to defend the interests of the farming sector, which immediately increases the output of food crops. No other method of eradicating poverty is feasible without the cultivation of food crops.

We must never lose sight of the connection between agricultural / food crop production and the creation of jobs and the reduction of poverty. The production of food crops is currently showing some really concerning unfavourable trends in the farming industry.

Due to the current issues, farmers prefer commercial cash crop farming activities over food crop farming, which requires less labour.

The government may create employment with this poor growth in food crop output in the medium term, but they will eventually run out of food grains. Poverty cannot be eradicated if adequate supplies of food grains are not guaranteed.

The NREGA plans’ harmful repercussions are already dangerously expanding their tentacles. The agricultural industry is already displaying serious signals of poor growth.

In order to achieve its objectives of creating jobs and eliminating poverty, the government should acknowledge this and take quick action to improve the NREGA scheme by incorporating farming operations. Government should strike a balance between producing food crops and creating jobs, and it should never lose sight of the fact that agriculture is the foundation of our nation.