hyderabad telangana municipal and industries minister kt rama rao urged union finance minister nirmala sitharaman to announce national urban employment guarantee scheme nuegs in the 20222023 budget speech on the lines of the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme mgnregs to help urban poor in the countryhe said it was important to bring mgnregs like schemes to the urban poor to strengthen social security measures in urban areasin a letter to the union finance minister on thursday ktr said the scheme was necessary due to reasons like urbanisation is rapid with a surge in the urban population requiring more employment avenues to the growing labour force it is only the urban informal economic sector that could offer any hope in the absorption of such a growing labour force and urban centres and towns have become growth engines of the indian economy he saidwhile lockdownlike uncertainties impacted the urban poor more than any other segment it is time to protect the urban informal sector from the ravages of any economic blackouts in future ktr saidhe said it was more than the job guarantee what is essentially required for a labour force is rising income and increased savings that could be of any help to his or her family in times of distress hence a national policy aimed at increased daily incomes for urban labour is the need of the hour the minister saidktr said urbanisation was a global trend and india is no exception as per the 2011 census 31 of the indian population or about 380 million people live in urban areas this is a sixfold increase from a mere 62 million in 1951 this number is estimated to increase to about 600 million by the year 2030 by which time 40 of the indian population will live in urban areas some states like telangana have been witnessing an even faster pace of urbanisation and the urban population in these states is poised to cross the 50 per cent mark in near future ktr saidhe said the covid 19 pandemic had brought to fore the sufferings of urban poor especially the migrant labour who constitute a major chunk of urban poor according to centre for monitoring indian economy cmie the unemployment rate in urban india is 94 per cent and among the urban youth of the 1529 years age group it has rose to 192 per cent and 211 per cent respectively in the prelockdown periods of octoberdecember 2019 and januarymarch 2021 respectively the minister saidthe pandemic and the resultant lockdowns have impacted the urban poor especially the migrant labour more than any other segment in terms of loss of livelihoods the periodic labour force survey plfs reports says 90 per cent of workers were in the informal sector which is 419 million of the 465 million workers its quarterly bulletin for apriljune 2020 says that the unemployment rate in urban areas for those above 15 years jumped to 208 per cent from 91 per cent in januarymarch 2020