MGNREGA participation dipped in first 6 months this FY compared to last

Fewer people participated in MGNREGA during the first six months of this financial year (April-September) compared to the same period last year, a recent analysis of the scheme’s performance by LibTech showed.

It added that net deletion of worker names from the list of registered workers stood at around 3.9 million during this period.

The analysis showed that while 8.5 million workers were deleted, only 4.5 million workers were added to the list of registered MGNREGA workers, thus taking the net deletion to 3.9 million.

LibTech India's analysis was based on data sourced from the MGNREGA website (https://nrega.nic.in/) as of October 10, 2024.

LibTech describes itself as a team of engineers, social workers, and social scientists interested in improving public service delivery in India.

The report titled, ‘MGNREGA Implementation in India: Insights and Trends, April-Sept 2024,’ released on Friday showed that the Union government’s strong push for implementing the Aadhaar-based payment system, coupled with the ‘failure’ of state governments to adequately address erroneous deletions, has exacerbated the problem.

“Given this context, one might expect the government to take corrective measures to reinstate deleted workers in the current financial year,” the report said.

The report also said that there has been a 16.6 per cent drop in person-days generated between April and September 2024 as compared to the same period last year — from 1.84 billion to 1.54 billion person-days.

State-wise, the report showed that Tamil Nadu and Odisha had the steepest declines in person-days, while Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh saw increases, the report said.

After an increase in person-days from 1.66 billion in the financial year 2022-23 to 1.84 billion — a 10 per cent rise — a significant decline has been seen in the current financial year, with person-days dropping to 1.53 billion (a 16.6 per cent decrease).

“It is reasonable to infer that the number of person-days generated would have been even higher if the wrongly deleted workers had been reinstated, highlighting the substantial reliance of workers on MGNREGA,” the report said.

This observation emphasises the consistently high and growing demand for employment opportunities under the scheme, it said.

Shamala Kittane, an author of the report, said the decline in work demand this year could partly be due to the deletion of active job cards, as this limits who can request work.

“In the limited geography we track, we found that these deletions are partly responsible.

"However, work demand generally depends on multiple variables, including rainfall, Union government Budget allocations, political will, and the capacity of state governments.

"Delays in wage payments and administrative challenges likely discourage people from seeking employment under MGNREGA,” Kittane said.