Decline in number of workdays under MGNREGA: Govt

The number of workdays being provided under the rural job flagship scheme MGNREGA has registered a decline, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Minister of State for Rural Development Sudarshan Bhagat, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, said "there has been a decline in the number of persondays created in 2014-15."
"MGNREGA is a demand driven programme and the demand for work itself is influenced by various factors such as rainfall pattern, availability of alternative and remunerative employment opportunities outside MGNREGA and prevailing unskilled wage rates," he said.
The minister said that the government remains "actively engaged" with state governments in establishing the system that ensures provision of work as per demand.

The annexure of data of workdays provided to each household under MGNREGA shows a constant decline in last three years in most of the states barring Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Goa, where it has shown a marginal growth in comparison to last year.
He said that the states and Union territories have been asked to take a number of measures like expanding scope and coverage of demand registration system to ensure that the demand for work under MGNREGA do not go unregistered and organise 'Rozgar Diwas' periodically to capture the latent demand under the programme.

Figures show while the Act provides for a maximum of 100-days employment to each household, the average of actual workdays being provided has come down from 46 in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to 40 workdays in 2014-15.

The decline is all the more noticeable in North Eastern states like Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
In Mizoram, which recorded 88 workdays per household in 2012-13, it came down to 75 in 2013-14 and then to a drastic 22 in last financial year.
In Nagaland, it was down to 21 from 45 and 63 earlier while in Manipur it was 20 in the last financial year down from 25 in 2013-14 and 62 in 2012-13.