Report

Image used for representation purposes. |Picture source: G. Moorthy

A review of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the fiscal year 2024-25 showed that despite the increase in coverage, registered households under the program have increased by 8.6%, but the number of promised employment has actually declined, with people’s days falling by 7.1%.

Persondays under MGNREGS are defined as the total number of working days for persons registered in the fiscal year under the program. This was revealed in a report released by Libtech India, a consortium of scholars and activists, on Monday (May 19, 2025).

The LIBTECH study shows that only 7% of households have 100 days of work. The MGNREG Act promises to guarantee up to 100 days of employment. The report highlighted that the total number of registered households under the scheme increased by 8.6% from Rs 13,800 crore in fiscal 2023-24 to 149,800 crore in 2024-25. Meanwhile, the average employment days per household fell by 4.3%, from 52.42 person-days in fiscal 2023-24 to 50.18 days in fiscal 2024-25. This reflects a mismatch between the coverage of the plan and its delivery, the LIBTECH report notes. “This trend raises questions about system and implementation-level challenges that continue to limit the effectiveness of the program,” the report said.

Furthermore, ongoing issues in regional change plans continue. Odisha (34.8%) Tamil Nadu (25.1%) and Rajasthan (15.9%) saw the highest declines, while Maharashtra (39.7%), Himaal Pradesh (14.8%) (14.8%) and Bihar (13.3%) recorded an increase.

Inadequate allocation

One of the key factors leading to a decline in overall employment is the inadequate allocation of budgets and insufficient delays in payroll payments reported nationwide. These two issues have been emphasized on various platforms. In the past, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development has raised concerns about the reduction of budget allocations by the Union Government and its impact on programme progress. The People’s Employment Guarantee Action (PAEG) recommends allocating the MGNREGS budget for fiscal 2022-23 to Rs 264 crore. However, the coalition government allocated only Rs 860,000 crore for fiscal year 2024-25. There are no revisions in the MGNREGS budget for fiscal 2024-25.

The LIBTECH report also noted that the national MGNREGS workers’ deletion was at least partially arrested. Between 24 months of 2022 and 2024, 780 million workers were deleted. The ministry insists that deletion and addition are part of the regular process. But the deletion rate far exceeds the addition rate. During the corresponding period, only 19,200 million workers were added. The report noted that this trend reversed for the first time in fiscal year 2024-25. Therefore, although 9.9 million workers were removed, 2.22 million were added. After the Ministry of Rural Development issued the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) was added in the case of recovering deleted work cards and workers.