Beneficiaries – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers engaged in the extension of a supply channel in Melamangalam village panchayat, Kalayarkoil block of Sivaganga district. File | Photo credit: The Hindu
A comparison of employment generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from April to September 2025 with the corresponding periods in the previous two financial years, 2024-25 and 2023-24, shows a downward trend, according to a semi-annual tracker released by Lib Tech, a consortium of academics and activists.
Lib Tech analyzed data from 20 states where significant MGNREGS work is being done. Of these, 11 reported a decrease.
In the first half of the current financial year, 132.5 million person-days were generated. This reflects an 11.7% decline from the 150 million person-days recorded in FY2024-25 and a sharper 25.6% decline from FY2023-24, when 178 million person-days were created. A personal day is defined as the total number of working days performed by a registered worker under the scheme during the financial year.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of MGNREGS. More than 26 million workers are currently registered in the program.
“The sustained decline points to a worrying trend of declining demand and employment provision for a program that has historically served as a safety net for rural households in need,” the Lib Tech report said. Among the states that saw significant declines, Uttarakhand (54.3% drop) and Telangana (47.6%) saw the steepest drop in generated person-days. On the other hand, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh turned out to be outliers, recording a 56.4% and 30.5% increase in the number of working days in the last fiscal year, respectively.
Published – 19 Nov 2025 20:52 IST
