Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of MGNREGA in providing relief in Jharkhand

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the food and economic crisis in the entire world. The vulnerable population faced social and economic disadvantages during the lockdown. The lockdown led to job losses and increased food insecurity. Due to the loss of livelihood and extensive restrictions imposed during lockdown, large masses of labouring classes migrated from urban to rural areas and in this context, MGNREGA played a crucial role in giving livelihood opportunities to the population who were coming back. The study is based on secondary data, and data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel. The data for the study was collected from https://nrega.nic.in/, Jharkhand. The result shows that during the COVID-19 lockdown, the households registered with MGNREGA increased, as well as the average number of household-provided employment increased. It is important to note that the other social groups have a higher average number under ‘household-provided employment’ as compared to the SCs and STs.