HYDERABAD: A study has found that 47 per cent of low-income households had at least one active job card, while 29 per cent of adults in rural areas did not have an active job card but wanted to get one. About 18 per cent of job card holders were unable to submit their job applications due to perceived discrimination and high transaction costs (e.g., making multiple visits to the Gram Panchayat).
About six per cent of women with job cards reported having tried to apply for employment without success as no work was available for them. Further, 26 per cent of women who wanted MGNREGS work but could not apply cited a lack of understanding of the application process as the reason for being unsuccessful.
The study, titled ‘The state of rural employment: A look at MGNREGS across 5 states in India’, was conducted by Dalberg, a social impact advisory group, in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, which account for over 40 per cent of the registered MGNREGS workers in the country.
