Work demand under MGNREGA rises 8.3% in December 2024, shows data

Work demand in December 2024 under the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was 8.3 per cent higher than the corresponding period in 2023. It was for the second consecutive month after November that the demand was higher on an year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis.  Data sourced from the MGNREGA website showed that 21.58 million households sought work under the scheme in December. In November 2024, work demand was almost 4 per cent more than the same month in 2023.  In 2024-25 (FY25), November and December have been the only two months when the Y-o-Y growth in demand stood in positive territory. 

    In total, the data showed that about 51.2 million households have worked under the scheme in FY25 so far. In FY24, about 60 million had worked under the scheme.  On the budget front, about Rs 81,341 crore has been spent on the scheme so far while total Central release was close to Rs 80,000 crore.  The Centre has budgeted Rs 86,000 crore for the scheme in FY25. Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had recently said that MGNREGA was a demand-based scheme, and additional fund would be sought if the budget fell short.