MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)

Core Objectives of the Scheme

Salient Features of the Scheme

• Providing not <100 days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand.
• Strengthening livelihood resource base of the poor
• Proactively ensuring social inclusion
• Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions

Major Amendments

• Blocks classified as 'Over-exploited', 'Critical', 'Semi-critical', and 'Safe' will be treated as priority areas for action.
• The District Programme Coordinator or Programme Officer must ensure that a minimum share of total project costs in these blocks is spent on water-related works as follows:
  • 65% in Over-exploited and Critical rural blocks
  • 40% in Semi-critical rural blocks
  • 30% in Safe rural blocks
• Categorisation of Assessment Units as per Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment Report (Central Ground Water Board)

About MGNREGA:

• Launch Year: 2005
• Type: Centrally Sponsored Scheme (60:40 by Centre and States)
• Ministry: Ministry of Rural Development.
• Total Outlay:₹86,000 crore (Union Budget 2025)
• Beneficiaries: All Household members aged more than 18 years and residing in rural area.
• Coverage: Entire country except districts having 100 % urban populations.
• Monitoring: Social Audit by the Gram Sabha
• Basis for Wage Rates: 
  • CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index-Agriculture Labour)
  • Each State/UT can provide wage over and above the wage rate notified by the Central Government.
• Additional 50 days of unskilled wage employment in a financial year during:-
  • drought/natural calamity affected notified rural areas and
  • For ST Household in a forest area, provided that these households have no other private property except for the land rights provided under Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
  • State Governments may make provision for providing additional days of employment beyond the period guaranteed under the Act from their own funds.
• Right to unemployment allowance and the payment is to be made in 15 days.
  • Delay compensation at a rate of 0.05% of unpaid wages per day for duration of delay beyond 16^th day of the closure of Muster Roll.
• Special Category of Workers (Vulnerable Groups) under MGNREGA
  • It includes Persons with disabilities, Primitive Tribal Groups, Nomadic Tribal Groups, De-notified Tribes, Women in special circumstances, Senior citizens(>65 years of age), HIV positive persons, Internally displaced persons &  Rehabilitated bonded labour
• Key procedural features of MGNREGS:
  • Wage to material ratio to be maintained at 60:40 at Gram Panchayat level.
  • At least 1/3^rd of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested for work under this Act.
• Other Key features: 
  • GeoNREGA: tracks creation of assets by geotagging it, at "Before", "During" and "After" stages of the asset creation.
  • Project 'UNNATI': aims to skill MGNREGS beneficiaries so that they can move from the current partial employment to full-time employment. 

Achievements

• MGNREGA has become the world's largest social welfare programme.
• Women's participation has risen from 48% in 2014 to 58% in 2025.