More Persondays Generated under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

As per the NREGASoft, a total of 389.09 crore persondays were generated in the financial year 2020-21, during which the impact of Covid -19 was on the peak. Against this, total of 293.70 crore persondays were generated in FY 2022-23. In the Financial Year 2023-24 a total of 309.01 crore persondays have been generated. Here it is also mentioned that during the FY 2023-24 some parts of the country like the State of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had faced drought situation which also contributed in the generation of higher persondays in some states including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Hence, it may not be appropriate to link the higher generation of persondays under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) in FY 2023-24 with the overall employment situation in the country.

There is no proposal under consideration to increase the minimum guaranteed days in a year to the workers under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. However, the Ministry mandates the provision of an additional 50 days of wage employment (beyond the stipulated 100 days) to every Scheduled Tribe Household in a forest area, provided that these households have no other private property except for the land rights provided under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

In addition to this, there is a provision for up to an additional 50 days of wage employment in a financial year in drought/natural calamity-affected notified rural areas.

As per Section 3 (4) of the Act, the State Governments may make provision for providing additional days of employment beyond the period guaranteed under the Act from their own funds.