LUCKNOW: The stark reality tumbled out as the financial year drew to a close on Friday.
Centre's flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), has recorded its lowest ever engagement of labourers from the SC/ST community in UP in 2022-23.
Rural development department data show that the percentage of labour days generated for SC community -- vis-a-vis overall employment generation under the scheme -- dropped from around 31% in 2021-22 to 29% in 2022-23, which was the lowest in the last five years. UP recorded 30.43% % of the SC employment under MNREGS in 2019-20, which went up to 31.18% in 2020-21 when pandemic triggered lock down brought economic activities to a grinding halt.
