IN a clear sign that MGNREGA has emerged as a safety net for lakhs amid the economic distress triggered by Covid-19, over 83 lakh new households have been issued job cards under the scheme during the first five months of the current financial year. Signficantly, this number — from April 1 to September 3— is higher than the annual surge for the last seven years for which data is available on the NREGA portal.
This is a jump of 28.32 per cent from the 64.70 lakh new job cards issued in the entire 2019-20 year.
This sharp increase in new job cards comes at a time…