Data from the government website shows a 13.67% decline in household work generation last month at 18.5 million compared to 21.2 million in April 21 while persondays work generation under the scheme fell by 18.3% to 278.4 million against 340.7 million in April last year.
The decline in work generation corroborates with the decline in demand for work under the rural guarantee scheme, which has witnessed a year-on-year dip and is inching closer to the pre-Covid levels, suggesting reduced dependence on the rural employment guarantee scheme for livelihood.
Households demand for work in April 2022 stood at 23.2 million, which is a dip of 11.1% compared to 26.1 million in April 2021 while the individual demand fell by 13% last month to 32.8 million as against 37.8 million individuals who demanded work under the scheme in April 2021.
This demand, though higher than 2019, is on the decline, suggesting normalcy is gradually returning in the labour market. In April 2019, 21 million households demanded work under the scheme while the individual demand stood at 30.3 million.
“The rural labour market is heading towards equilibrium. With elimination of Covid fear, rural migrants are now going back to urban India and there is subsequent decline in rural distress,” labour economist KR Shyam Sundar said.
Sundar, however, feels that the data for next two quarters is crucial to establish the stability in the rural market keeping in mind the geopolitical crisis, inflation and other factors that will determine economic growth going forward.
