The hike in wages coupled with the launch of the Sthree Chetana campaign in Mysuru rural has given a new impetus to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) among the unemployed youth and women.

The government has hiked the minimum wages under the MGNREGA from ₹349 to ₹370 a day, and though the hike is modest, it is expected to make a significant difference to the daily wagers.

The Mysuru zilla panchayat and district administration launched a campaign in Periyapatana earlier this week and distributed job cards to women who were the focus of the drive.

The Assistant Director (Panchayati Raj) Vasantha Lakshmi said that women should take up work under this scheme to become economically empowered. She inaugurated the “Sthree Chetana Special Campaign” by distributing job cards and said their objective was to increase women’s participation under the MGNREGA from 50% to 60%.

She said the priority is to ensure that women labour force get employment for 100 days on a continuous basis as this would help empower them financially. The authorities are trying to meet the target through women’s self-help groups to get jobs under the MGNREGA so that they could take up community work such as construction of ponds, drains, compound walls, and metal roads in rural areas.

The authorities said families without a job card may visit their respective gram panchayat offices, furnish the required documents, and obtain the job cards. A human chain was also formed as part of the campaign in Periyapatana to promote the MGNREGA wage hike.

Commenting on the feedback from the beneficiaries, the authorities said the hike in the daily wages under the MGNREGA has been received positively by workers in rural areas. For youngsters who benefited from the MGNREGA in the past, the wage hike is a motivation to stay back in villages instead of migrating to the city, according to the authorities.

The MGNREGA scheme guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year for each household, and 100 days of work can help a household earn ₹37,000. As there was a shortage of labourers in rural areas, the zilla panchayat launched a slew of awareness programmes about the MGNREGA and its hike. This was expected to push a lot more people to opt for the scheme, according to M. Krishnaraju, Deputy Secretary (Development), zilla panchayat, Mysuru.

According to the authorities, the MGNREGA is perceived to be a source of livelihood for the landless labourers once the agricultural season and harvesting are over.