Uptick in NREGS demand continues, August sees a spike of 25.8% from last year

During Covid pandemic, the figure stood at 2 crore in August 2020, and 2.11 crore in August 2021. However, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was at a much lower level — 1.22 crore in August 2019. The August 2023 figure of families which worked under the NREGS could have been higher if the scheme was continuing in West Bengal. The Centre has stopped release of funds to West Bengal, resulting in no work in the state. This is the reason that West Bengal reported only 10 households availing the rural job guarantee scheme in August 2023.

In fact, the demand for work under the NREGS has remained elevated during the first five months of the current financial year as the number of households availing the scheme reached 2 crore in April, 2.56 crore in May, 3.05 crore in June, and 2.09 crore in July.

The MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme had emerged as a safety net for poor and migrant workers who returned to their villages in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020-21, which witnessed the outbreak of Covid-19 and subsequent nationwide lockdown, the annual figure of families availing the scheme hit the all-time high of 7.5 crore. It came down in the following two years — 7.25 crore in 2021-22, and 6.18 crore in 2022-23. However, it has started rising again since the beginning of the financial year 2023-24.

Till September 23, 2023, the cumulative number of families availing the rural job guarantee scheme has reached 4.8 crore. A monthly analysis of the growing demand under the NREGS shows that almost 11 per cent more households availed the rural job guarantee scheme during April 2023 (2 crore) as compared to 1.83 crore in April 2022. It was 9.47 per cent higher in May this year as compared to the same month last year, 11.04 per cent higher in June 2023 compared to June 2022, and 19.38 per cent higher in July against the corresponding month last year.

Tamil Nadu (54.61 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (17.61 lakh), Rajasthan (13.07 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (9.67 lakh) and Kerala (9.49 lakh) were top five states recording the maximum number of families availing NREGS during August 2023. Tamil Nadu saw a jump of 56.87 per cent in NREGS demand as compared to 34.81 lakh in August last year. UP saw a marginal dip of 0.43 per cent in August this year as compared to a year ago, while Rajasthan saw a jump of 70.74 per cent.

Among the major states seeing a drop in the number of households which worked under the NREGS is Bihar, where the number came down by 43.72 per cent to 4.03 lakh during August 2023 from 7.17 lakh in the same month a year ago.