This article has been written by Madhureh Chaudhary, from the Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Delhi.

Introduction

With the outbreak of this pandemic “COVID-19” at the beginning of this year, there is a lot of panic and chaos around the world. Though the Earth revolves on its axis, the world came to a standstill due to this pandemic. Industries stopped, markets closed, constructions were put on a hold. People were not even allowed to go out except for emergencies or for buying necessary goods. In this situation. a huge amount of workers lost their jobs and suffered a lot. With no money left workers had no other option but to return back to their native villages from where they came to earn a living in cities. After seeing this situation and Madhya Pradesh being one of the biggest states of India, the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the “Rozgar Setu Yojana” on 27th May 2020, to provide employment to all the skilled migrant workers who returned back to the state.

Under this scheme, the government provides a platform to the skilled workers who fulfil the eligibility to get employment in their desired sector in which they acquire the special skill. This will also help in generation of wages. As workers recede back to their native states there is a lot of shortage of labour in the industry. This scheme also helps employers to get workers according to their requirements.

Objectives

The main objective of this scheme is to provide employment to the workers to support them financially. It creates jobs according to the skills the workers attain so that they can get the jobs that they do best. It also aims at solving the problems of the employers as it provides the correct kind of workers that are required for that employment. This scheme generates wages and helps the workers to sustain this pandemic situation. It provides a common portal to apply for jobs reducing the workload on the government. The state government here acts as a bridge (setu) between employers and workers.

Salient Features of the scheme

The key feature of this scheme is to maintain employers and workers. For this purpose, it generates jobs according to the skillset attained by the workers. This helps in proper job allocation for workers and also for proper completion of work according to the expectation of the employer.

The basic features of this scheme are:

• The government under this scheme categorized various skill sectors for employment such as: Constructions, Mining Activities, Textile, Agriculture, Government Sectors of State, other factories of state.
• With this, the government provided a platform for workers to choose the field in which they attain proper skills. 
• After the identification of workers, the Government then provided a portal for employers to provide with the employment requirements in their industry. The government also asked the contractors who undertook infrastructure projects of construction of roads and bridges to provide with the details of workers required.
• The government acted as a bridge between the workers and employers.
• This scheme helped in generation of wages and proper completion of projects by the workers who were required for it.
• This scheme also protects the interest of workers as they provide for the jobs which are based on their skills as it allows them to earn accordingly.

Eligibility for this scheme

• The worker must be a “migrant worker”.
• The worker who applies for this scheme must be a permanent resident of the state.
• The worker must have a “Samagra ID” for availing the benefits of the scheme. If no id, he should generate it.
• He should attain a sort of skill to get employment under this scheme.

These are the requirements for eligibility. The state announced the last date for application as 3rd June.

Procedure to apply for this scheme

• The migrant worker is required to generate the “Samagra ID”.
• On the portal, worker must provide their “Samagra ID” and “Aadhar No.” to get himself shortlisted for the surveys.
• After this, the government will conduct the surveys and provide the jobs.
• This will be executed under the guidance of the District Collector. Chief Executive Officer, for rural areas, Chief Municipal Officers for Urban areas as well as Municipal Officer for the Municipal Corporation shall be appointed.

Benefits of the scheme

• This scheme provides benefits only to the residents of Madhya Pradesh.
• Only the unemployed migrant workers will be provided with the employment.
• In this scheme the workers will get benefits according to their abilities. More than 5 lakh workers will get the benefit of this scheme.
• This will improve the economic condition of workers.
• This scheme deals with the issue of unemployment.
• Workers have to generate ID on “Samagra Portal.” This will help in providing the complete information of the workers to the government.
• The workers will get employment under MNREGA scheme.
• Workers will get “Free Food” from the Food Department of state under the “Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Yojana”.
• Wages will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the workers.

Critical Analysis

In my opinion, this scheme benefits employers as well as workers. It helps in improving the economic condition of workers by providing them with jobs during such an alarming condition. This scheme brings justice to workers and employers by providing jobs according to the skills of workers. This scheme provides a two-way portal for collection of information of workers in one and creation of jobs by the employers. This secures the interest of workers as they get what they deserve rather than compromising due to less no. of jobs. Government maintains proper records of workers by conducting various surveys. Government also ensures smooth functioning of this scheme by appointing District Collectors. This scheme also generates “Samagra ID” for the workers. With these many benefits this scheme provides for the solution to one of the main problems that was faced by workers during this pandemic situation. This scheme acts as a boon for the resident workers of the state. This will help in overall development of the state.

Conclusion

This scheme justifies its name as it reduces the distance between employers and workers. Madhya Pradesh being the first state to introduce such a scheme that helps in generation and allotment of jobs according to the ability of workers. This is such a well-managed scheme that it provides for the systematic division of the different set of skills that the workers possess.

With this scheme, the State also launched “Swamitva Yojana” in which survey of rural areas is done for preparation of land record which will help in providing land ownership records to the rural population. “Shram Siddhi Abhiyan” was also launched to provide employment to unskilled labour.

Overall this scheme acts as a masterstroke played by the State Government in improving the condition of the state. The State Government through this scheme makes workers realise that they took a wise step of returning back to their homes.

Overall this is a well-drafted scheme yet its implementation will be shown by the outcomes of the scheme.   

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