(a) whether the rate of rural unemployment in India has jumped from 5.6 per cent to 7.8 per cent;
(b) if so, the schemes implemented by the Government to provide the farmers with appropriate wages;
(c) whether rural inflation has also grown at a rate of 28 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2019 and if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the steps taken by the Government to maintain their disposable incomes?
MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)
(a): As per information shared by National Sample Survey (NSS), National Statistics Office (NSO), Annual Report on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) (July 2017-June 2018), published by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, estimates of Unemployment rate (UR) of rural sector (primary status + secondary status) in India is 5.3%. The formula for calculation in this regard is as under:
Unemployment Rate (UR): no. of unemployed persons/
no. of employed persons + no. of unemployed persons *100
(b): As per information shared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, there is no specific scheme under implementation to provide farmers with appropriate wages. However, The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 provides at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every rural household (including farmers) whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
(c): As per information shared by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, National Statistics Office (NSO), the All India Quarterly indices and year on year General Inflation Rates of the Rural Sector (in percent), with base 2012=100, during the period of January, 2019 to September 2019 is given below:
Year/Quarter* Q2: April-June Q3: July-September
2019 142.6 145.8
2019 2.00 2.60
* Quarterly Inflation has been worked out on average of Monthly CPI indices for each quarter.
(d): The Government monitors the price situation on a regular basis as price stability is high on its agenda. The Government has taken a number of measures to control inflation especial food inflation which, inter-alia, include regular review meetings on price and availability situation at highest level including at the level of Committee of Secretaries, Inter-Ministerial Committee, Price Stabilization Fund Management Committee and other Departmental level review meetings.
To compensate the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) workers against inflation, the Ministry of Rural Development revises the wage rates every year based on Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL) published by Labour Bureau, Shimla for all States/UTs.