Number of families seeking work under MGNREGS continues to fall post-pandemic, figures reveal

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Key Points

The number of families availing the benefit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) continues to fall post the Covid-19 pandemic, with 6.19 crore households availing of the rural job programme during the 2022-23 financial year compared to 7.25 crore in 2021-22 and 7.55 crore in 2020-21, shows the official data...

However, the demand for work under NREGS is still higher than its pre-Covid levels when the number of families who availed of the scheme stood at 5.48 crore in 2019-20 and 5.27 crore in 2018-19...

The NREGA guarantees 100-day wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work...

The Economic Survey 2022-23, presented in Parliament earlier this year, had attributed the year-on-year (YoY) decline in monthly demand for MGNREGS work to the normalisation of the rural economy due to strong agricultural growth and a swift recovery from Covid-induced slowdown, culminating in better employment opportunities...

Observing that the MGNREGS is a last resort of succour for jobless people, the Standing Committee on Rural Development & Panchayati Raj said, The Committee are concerned to note that the Budget Estimates for MGNREGS has been reduced by Rs. 29,400 crore for 2023-24 when compared to Revised Estimates of 2022-23...

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