Context: Recently, the government of Rajasthan has launched the flagship scheme for Urban Employment, the Indira Gandhi Shehari Rojgar Yojana.

About Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Scheme

• Aim: Providing economic support to the poor and needy families living in the cities through work to be provided on demand for 100 days in a year.

• Sectors covered: Projects on environment protection, water conservation, heritage conservation, maintenance of gardens, removal of encroachment, illegal sign boards, hoardings and banners, and sanitation will be undertaken.

• Eligibility: People in the 18 to 60 age group are eligible for the scheme under which at least 50 people in each ward of urban local bodies will be given employment.

• Registration: A Janaadhar card or its registration slip is required. Registrations can be done at e-Mitra centres.

• Budgetary allocation: The government has allocated Rs 800 crore for the scheme. 

Significance of the scheme 

• Countering Inflation: any family that wants to increase their income at a time of high inflation could seek jobs under it.

• Standard of living: this will also improve the standard of living of the people. 

• COVID: when the employment crisis increased during the coronavirus pandemic, the MGNREGA proved to be a boon.

• Employment: Rajasthan Government said that nearly 40,000 people got the work on the first day.

Other initiatives by the Rajasthan Government 

Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme

• The state government has made treatment free under the Chiranjeevi scheme so that the poor do not need to sell their belongings to get treatment.

Smartphone distribution

• Government will give smartphones with three years of free internet connection to 1.35 crore women.

Mahatma Gandhi English Medium schools

• To provide education to children in English medium.

Sanitary napkins

• There is also a scheme to distribute free sanitary napkins to women.

Kucchi bastis

• Government also talked about the problems faced by people living in slums and said the state government will regularise kucchi bastis. 

Urban Employment Guarantee Schemes of other States

• Kerala: Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (AUEGS), launched in 2010, aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in urban areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to an urban household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

• Himachal Pradesh: Mukhya Mantri Shahri Ajeevika Guarantee Yojana was launched in 2020 to enhance livelihood security in urban areas by providing 120 days of guaranteed wage employment to every household in a financial year.

• Jharkhand: Mukhyamantri Shramik Yojana was launched in 2020 to enhance livelihood security in Jharkhand State by providing a guaranteed 100 days wage employment in a financial year.

Can UEG Scheme be an Extension of MGNREGA?

• Currently in India, most UEGs appear to be a mere extension of MGNREGA to the urban areas.

• Being the UEG in Himachal Pradesh, Odisha or Kerala, one common feature among them is providing employment for a specific number of days during the year to the urban households.

However, UEGs cannot be mere extension of MGNREGA due to following reasons:

• Rural unemployment is mostly seasonal.

• During peak farming season, very few rural people may be unemployed.

• But there is no such seasonality in urban unemployment.

• Capacity of the Panchayati Raj Institutions in rural and urban areas.

• Urban local bodies are poorly funded and have little capacity to provide help.

• The public works in which the labour is involved are different in rural and urban economies.

Road Ahead

• UEG Scheme interventions by the States are a welcome step which give urban residents the right to work and ensure the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. It will boost local demand in small towns, improve public infrastructure and services, spur entrepreneurship, build skills of workers and create a shared sense of public goods.