3 weeks ago
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The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) witnessed a crisp contraction successful its standard and scope successful 2025–26, according to a study connected the last operational twelvemonth of the strategy introduced by the Congress-led UPA era.
The study points to a paradoxical inclination wherever the fig of registered households roseate marginally, but less households and workers recovered employment, full workdays declined significantly, and less families completed the guaranteed 100 days of work. The study was released by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a conjugation of non-profit bodies moving with MGNREGS workers, and was prepared by LibTech India, a consortium of academics and activists.
LibTech estimates that the contraction resulted successful an mean income nonaccomplishment of ₹1,221 for each MGNREGS household during the fiscal year.
Uncertain transition
The Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act 2025, which was passed successful Parliament past December, is expected to travel into unit soon, replacing MGNREGS. The Union authorities has allocated lone ₹30,000 crore for MGNREGS for the transitional period.
This diminution is profoundly worrying, the NREGA Sangarsh Morcha said, particularly since the caller employment strategy was brought successful with nary nationalist consultation. “The employment warrant programmes play a captious relation successful agrarian livelihood information and immoderate large restructuring of specified programmes indispensable impact meaningful consultation,” it said successful a statement. The activists person urged the authorities to guarantee that during the modulation period, employment opportunities volition proceed to beryllium provided unhindered.
Fewer moving days
The fig of registered households nether the strategy accrued by 3.2%, from 14.98 crore successful 2024–25 to 15.46 crore successful 2025–26. However, this did not construe into greater employment. The study notes that 44 lakh less households and 67 lakh less workers were employed compared to the erstwhile year, representing declines of 8.2% and 9.1% respectively.
The fig of persondays of enactment generated nether the programme fell sharply by 21.5%, from 268.44 crore successful 2024–25 to 210.73 crore successful 2025–26. Average persondays per household dropped by 14.5%, from 50.18 to 42.92. The interaction of this diminution is evident successful the crisp autumn successful the fig of households completing the afloat 100 days of guaranteed employment, which declined by 40.5%, from 0.37 crore to 0.22 crore.
The contraction was geographically widespread. Fifteen retired of 20 States recorded a autumn successful persondays during the year. West Bengal generated nary persondays successful either 2024–25 oregon 2025–26 and was excluded from the comparative analysis. Only 4 States registered an summation successful persondays.
Tamil Nadu recorded the steepest diminution astatine 42.8%, followed by Haryana astatine 41.7%, Himachal Pradesh astatine 41%, and Telangana astatine 40.2%. Jharkhand saw the highest summation successful persondays astatine 12.9%, followed by Jammu and Kashmir astatine 7.3% and Odisha astatine 6.7%. Madhya Pradesh registered a marginal summation of 0.5%.
Lower income
Wage expenditure nether the strategy declined sharply by astir ₹11,570 crore, from ₹67,835 crore successful 2024–25 to ₹56,265 crore successful 2025–26. This autumn occurred contempt an summation successful the mean regular wage from ₹252.7 to ₹267, arsenic the simplification successful persondays outweighed the effect of higher wages.
LibTech estimates that if persondays had remained astatine 2024–25 levels, workers could person earned an further ₹15,409 crore during the year. Average household income fell from ₹12,681 to ₹11,460. Had mean persondays per household remained unchanged, mean income would person been ₹13,398, implying a imaginable income nonaccomplishment of ₹1,938 per household.
