![](\"https:\/\/im.rediff.com\/money\/2020\/sep\/23mnrega.jpg?w=670&h=900\")
<\/p>\nIndia’s post-pandemic recovery appears to be shaping up like the letter K, widening the inequality among states.<\/p>\n
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The last part of the series captures the rising rural distress, as seen through the prism of MGNREGS demand.<\/p>\n
The pandemic appears to have exacerbated rural distress in the poorest states.<\/p>\n
The share of the poorest five in the work demanded under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme — an indicator of the economic health in rural areas — has increased, while the share of the richest five has declined.<\/p>\n
If more people demand work under MGNREGS, it means fewer people have jobs or supplemental income.<\/p>\n
A rise in the demand for work under the scheme shows rising economic distress.<\/p>\n
Work demanded under the rural employment scheme increased for both the richest and poorest states during the pandemic, but the poorest five — Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – showed an increase of 85.5 per cent year-on-year in 2020-21, which is more than twice the rate of increase in the riches five states of Karnataka, Haryana, Telangana, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n
The result has been an upending of the shares of the richest and poorest under MGNREGS.<\/p>\n
The top five accounted for 29.3 per cent of the total work demanded in 2014-15, whereas the poorest five had a share of 15 per cent.<\/p>\n
The situation had reversed by 2021-22: the share of the richest states had declined to 22.6 per cent, while the bottom five had 23.3 per cent.<\/p>\n
This indicates an increasing economic disparity among the richest and poorest states, which had been widening even before the pandemic struck.<\/p>\n
The agricultural income of the richest five states was growing at an average of 2.2 per cent in the decade leading to 2019-20, while the poorest averaged 1.5 per cent.<\/p>\n
As incomes diverge further, the demand for work under the rural employment scheme is set to increase in the poorest states.<\/p>\n
There are calls for an urban employment scheme on the lines of MGNREGS.<\/p>\n