The failure of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has augmented the migration of labourers from Bihar, a New Delhi-based organisation has said in its survey report.

The survey was conducted among 3,037 respondents from two blocks each in Gaya, Bhojpur and Auranagabad districts between March 2011 and November 2012 to find out reasons for migration to urban centres for work. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member Sachindra Narain, under whose guidance the survey was conducted, released the report at a city hotel on Tuesday.

With him was Debraj Bhattacharya, the co-ordinator of Institute of Social Sciences, the New Delhi-based orga- nisation that carried out the survey.

NHRC member Narain said: “According to the survey report, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has failed to deliver results in the districts of Aurangabad, Gaya and Bhojpur where the survey was conducted. Seventy-nine per cent of the respondents said they received no work under the job scheme. Had the people got jobs in their areas, they would not have gone outside.”

According to the report — “Why I left my village: A study on migration from rural Bihar, India” — cent per cent respondents in Aurangabad, 93 per cent respondents in Gaya and 54 per cent respondents in Bhojpur said they did not get any work under the MGNREGA.

Narain, a former faculty member of AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, said around 97 per cent of the respondents cited inadequate fulfilment of livelihood and inadequate employment opportunities as reasons for migration.

Asked about the migration trend during the seven-and-a-half-year rule of Nitish government, Narain said: “We cannot say whether migration has increased or decreased during Nitish’s rule as our survey was confined only to the three districts. But they certainly do not show a rosy picture.”

According to the report, majority of the migrants come from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. While they move to all parts of the country, New Delhi is the most favoured destination followed by Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Northeast. The respondents polled also said they don’t prefer to go to Mumbai or Assam in the Northeast apprehending attacks.