This is an archive article published on October 15, 2021
TN govt set to implement urban employment scheme
The scheme will be implemented in two zones in the Greater Chennai Corporation, one zone each in 14 municipal corporations, one municipality each in seven regions and one town panchayat each in 37 districts on a pilot basis.
The Tamil Nadu government is set to implement an urban employment scheme that aims to boost job opportunities through the creation and maintenance of public assets. The scheme will be implemented in two zones in the Greater Chennai Corporation, one zone each in 14 municipal corporations, one municipality each in seven regions and one town panchayat each in 37 districts on a pilot basis.
Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Vellore, Tirupur, Salem, Dindigul, Tirunelveli, Erode, Nagercoil, Thanjavur, Thoothukudi, Hosur and Avadi in the Chennai city suburbs are among the municipal corporations selected for the pilot project. One municipality each from Chengalpattu near Chennai city, Vellore, Salem, Tiruppur, Thanjavur, Madurai and Tirunelveli have also been chosen for the scheme.
The scheme will have an allocation of Rs 100 crore for the pilot stage implementation. It mandates that 50% of the total person-days be earmarked for women besides ensuring equal wages for women and men for the unskilled and semiskilled workers.
The idea was first proposed by a committee headed by former RBI governor C Rangarajan which was constituted by then AIADMK government last year to study the impact of pandemic in the state economy. Senior economist and a member of the Rangarajan committee, M Suresh Babu, who teaches economics in IIT-Madras, said the implementation of the urban employment guarantee scheme was one of the prominent proposals of the committee.
“Tamil Nadu has a high rate of rural to urban migration of the working class population. So, an intervention in the urban job sector, something similar to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme (MNREGA) is crucial to ensure a basic income for the urban poor,” Babu said. He said a large part of migrant population in urban centres is part of the informal sector, with jobs that give them no job security or social protection.
“We call them vulnerable jobs. If they lose their job, they do not have many options to fall back… This is where this urban employment scheme would play a major role. This is on pilot basis and we can scale it up after studying the first phase of implementation. I assume that the onus of identifying the beneficiaries of this project would be on the local bodies, using the same devices that identify MNREGA beneficiaries,” he said.
A similar project was implemented in Kerala in 2010 — Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme — which aimed to provide at least 100 days of employment in a financial year to the elderly of each family willing to be a part of the unskilled labour in urban areas.
Arun Janardhanan is an experienced and authoritative Tamil Nadu correspondent for The Indian Express. Based in the state, his reporting combines ground-level access with long-form clarity, offering readers a nuanced understanding of South India’s political, judicial, and cultural life - work that reflects both depth of expertise and sustained authority.
Expertise
Geographic Focus: As Tamil Nadu Correspondent focused on politics, crime, faith and disputes, Janardhanan has been also reporting extensively on Sri Lanka, producing a decade-long body of work on its elections, governance, and the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings through detailed stories and interviews.
Key Coverage Areas:
State Politics and Governance: Close reporting on the DMK and AIADMK, the emergence of new political actors such as actor Vijay’s TVK, internal party churn, Centre–State tensions, and the role of the Governor.
Legal and Judicial Affairs: Consistent coverage of the Madras High Court, including religion-linked disputes and cases involving state authority and civil liberties.
Investigations: Deep-dive series on landmark cases and unresolved questions, including the Tirupati encounter and the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, alongside multiple investigative series from Tamil Nadu.
Culture, Society, and Crisis: Reporting on cultural organisations, language debates, and disaster coverage—from cyclones to prolonged monsoon emergencies—anchored in on-the-ground detail.
His reporting has been recognised with the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Beyond journalism, Janardhanan is also a screenwriter; his Malayalam feature film Aarkkariyam was released in 2021. ... Read More
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