In the first 100 days (from April 1 to June 20) of this fiscal year, the Scheduled Caste (SC) and female participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Punjab has increased by leaps and bounds. The proportion of person-days in Punjab is higher than the national average. One "person day" is defined as a person working for a full eight hours.
In comparison to previous year's total share in both categories, the state's SC and women's person-days have increased by 7.56% and 8.25%, respectively. Additionally, when compared to the national average this year, the state has seen increases in SC and women's person-days of 55.26 percent and 12.43 percent, respectively.
In the first 100 days from April to June 20, according to data from the NREGA portal, women's and SC's share of total person-days was 68.37 percent, compared to 67.11 percent and 60.12 percent for the entire previous fiscal year.
In the first 100 days of this fiscal year, the SC and women's person-day shares were respectively 19.41% and 55.94% nationwide.
It's interesting to note that Punjab has the largest proportion in both categories during the previous five years.
The figures show that the percentage of SC person days in 2020–21, 2019–20, and 2018–19, respectively, was 65.1%, 68.96%, and 73.74%. In the same vein, women's person days in these years were 56.92%, 58.79%, and 60.73%, respectively.
Out of Punjab's 22 districts, 19 have seen an increase in the SC category, while 21 have seen an increase in the percentage of women person-days.
Malerkotla, the 23rd district of the state that was created last year, has a first-year record that is also fairly impressive, with a share of SC and women person-days of 87.19 percent and 81.19 percent, respectively.
Jalandhar tops the list of districts with the highest percentage of SC person-days with 92.36 percent, followed by Moga with 91.04 percent, Barnala with 90.61 percent, Ludhiana with 85.85 percent, Kapurthala with 85.19 percent, Mukatsar Sahib with 84.92 percent, Mansa with 83.14 percent, Bathinda with 82.86 percent, Faridkot with 81.48 percent, When it comes to SC person days, only Gurdaspur district comes in worst with just an 11.83 percent reported share.
The SC person-days share is highest in Jalandhar district, followed by Kapurthala, in the Doaba area, which includes the districts of Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr, and Jalandhar, where the SC population is highest in the nation.
According to the data, Ludhiana has the highest percentage of women person-days at 82 percent, followed by Malerkotla at 81.19 percent, Fatehgarh Sahib at 79.01 percent, Ropar at 77.45 percent, Mohali at 76.52 percent, Bathinda at 76.22 percent, Patiala at 74.62 percent, Barnala at 74.78 percent, Mansa at 74.23 percent, In the category of women person-days, the districts of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, and Sangrur likewise had a share of more than 70%.
Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts had the lowest percentages of women person days shared at 26.42 and 38.95 percent, respectively.
According to a representative of the Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Department, 67.09 percent of the 16.2 lakh current NREGA workers are people of colour.
Unskilled people in the villages choose to work under NREGA due to the lack of employment prospects, according to a district development and panchayat officer. The NREGS programme seeks to increase the security of rural residents' means of subsistence by giving at least one adult household member who volunteers to perform unskilled manual labour at least 100 days of pay employment in a fiscal year.
