The urban job guarantee scheme launched by Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan is a unique socialist model to support skill development and the urban poor. Much like the rural job guarantee scheme, MNREGS (through the MNREGA law), this scheme named after Indira Gandhi has the potential to be implemented nationwide, finds out Ram Kumar Kaushik

To provide livelihood assurance to poor families living in urban limits, Rajasthan has launched a unique job guarantee programme — the Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme — in the state. Under the scheme, poor jobless people in the age group of 18-60 years living in municipal areas will be given 100 days of employment in a year — much on the lines of the innovative Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which provides at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to each household in rural areas of the country.

“The way MNREGS has become the backbone of rural sustenance, IUEGS will certainly support the livelihood of urban poor who are struggling to make ends meet especially after the pandemic hit the world economy badly,” said RC Jain, a retired bureaucrat, who had worked closely with Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot.

The scheme is also referred to as the Rajasthan Urban Job Guarantee Scheme.

This Rs 800 crore scheme provides a daily wage of Rs 259 for 100 days in a year. It has so far benefited more than 90,000 poor people in less than three months after the launch on 9 September.

The scheme will provide employment in the segments of environment and water conservation, cleanliness and sanitation, stopping defacement of property, service-related works, convergence work and heritage conservation.

“During the spread of Covid-19, we had seen economies crumbling, reverse migration happening to villages, huge job losses and desperation everywhere. The miseries of jobless urban poor triggered the thought of having a guaranteed job scheme in city areas just like MNREGS which has supported the livelihood of people in villages. We are committed to providing financial support to every family in the state. IUEGS is just a step towards it,” said the Rajasthan chief minister who has pioneered this scheme.

Gehlot said that the union government should implement this scheme countrywide to provide financial support to urban poor who are still struggling to earn their livelihood. “MNREGS is a national scheme. It is not only generating employment but also creating assets in rural areas in form of roads, dams, sanitation and other basic facilities. We expect IUEGS to transform the lives of urban poor in a similar way,” Gehlot said. The scheme has proved to be a boon for daily wagers living in city areas.

“I had lost my job during the second wave of Covid. Since then I have been working as a daily wager. But I was not able to get a job every day. I thought of returning to my village and joining my three brothers who are barely sustaining on two bigha land. Now that I have registered with IUEGS, I have surety of 100-day employment in a year, I can stay back and dream of a better future,” said Balaram, a daily wager.