Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan

• 22 Jun 2020

• On 20^th June, 2020, the government launched a massive employment -cum- rural public works Campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan in order to boost employment and livelihood opportunities for migrant workers returning to villages, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
• The Abhiyaan was flagged off from village Telihar, Block Beldaur, district Khagaria, Bihar through Video-Conference.

Need

• Due to the coronavirus outbreak, businesses across sectors were affected which led to the temporary shutdown of the industries, leaving migrants with no jobs.
• As lakhs of migrants returned back, the government is obliged to provide employment to them closer to home.

Salient Features

Coverage

• A total of 116 districts across six states, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign.
• These districts are estimated to cover about 2/3 of such migrant work
• The chosen districts include 27 Aspirational Districts under Aspirational Districts Programme.

Duration and Outlay

• This campaign will work in mission mode for 125 days with an outlay of Rs. 50,000 crore.

Ministries Involved

• The Ministry of Rural Development is the nodal Ministry for this campaign and the campaign will be implemented in close coordination with the State Governments.
• Twelve different ministries or departments—rural development, panchayati raj, transport, mines, drinking water, environment, railways, petroleum, new and renewable energy, border roads, telecom and agriculture—will participate in the programme.

Implementation Strategy

• A total 25 work areas have been identified for employment in villages, for development of various works.
• These 25 works or projects are related to meet the needs of the villages like rural housing for the poor, Plantations, provision of drinking water through Jal Jeevan mission, Panchayat Bhavans, community toilets, rural mandis, rural roads, other infrastructure like Cattle Sheds, Anganwadi Bhavans etc.
• The Krishi Vigyan Kendras in villages will also help in imparting skills to the workers.
• The workers will be paid according to the stipulated minimum wage in the respective schemes of the government.

Special Focus

• Abhiyaan focuses on durable rural infrastructure and providing modern facilities like internet in the villages.
• Saturate villages with public infrastructure and create livelihood opportunities viz. Roads, Housing, Anganwadis, Panchayat Bhavans, various livelihood assets and Community Complexes among others

Significance

• The Abhiyaan will prepare for expansion and development of livelihoods over a longer-term.
• With ith the release of money to villages such as allocation to rural local bodies as recommended by the 15th finance commission, It will provide work and enable asset creation in rural areas, powering rural development.
• The basket of a wide variety of works will ensure that each migrant worker is able to get an opportunity of employment according to his skill, in the coming 125 days.