Discretionary fiscal spending needs to be raised further by allocating more towards MGNREGA

The broad areas covered in the attached article are: * Introduction: 1) Rationale behind increasing MGNREGA spending: India’s fiscal deficit as a proportion of the GDP has increased till 11 September, 2020 as a result of more of automatic stabilizers in comparison to discretionary policy action, and also due to more indirect (“below the line” measures) instead of direct fiscal response; 2) “Above the line” versus “below the line measures” of fiscal response in India and how MGNREGA comes as relief through discretionary spending; 3) MGNREGA work provided being less than what is needed in a lockdown induced economy where people have lost their jobs; 4) Revision of MGNREGA wages as part of lockdown relief is a mere eye-wash; * Approved Labour Budget and Work actually generated: Data pertaining to these indicators from ‘At a glance’ section and MIS reports show that the work that has been generated is much less than what is needed. MGNREGA trackers by Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) highlight how individual’s persondays demanded are hidden easily in the MIS data, thus failing to give the real picture. Even the registration of data in MIS is allegedly fraught with data suppression. * Employment of the last resort for the marginalized: There has been a declining trend of work generated for SCs (in total persondays of work) over the last 6 years while for STs it has remained almost constant. Women are facing a fall in their share in the total persondays of MGNREGA work generated in 2020-21. * Average days of work provided by MGNREGA per household is less than half of the sanctioned 100 days. This has been one of the major criticisms of MGNREGA; * Total number of individuals working under MGNREGA has seen an increasing trend (almost) over the past 6 years; * Average wage under MGNREGA is updated every year to adjust for inflation but is delinked from minimum wages; * The number of Gram Panchayats incurring no expenditure has reduced significantly over the past 6 years; * Share of Category A, Category B works and agriculture and allied activities: Various types of work done under MGNREGA is discussed.