The data available on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) portal shows that the number of households which completed 100 days of work under the scheme is highest since 2011-12.
Data available on the MNREGA portal shows that out of 7.18 crore households that have availed work under the rural job guarantee scheme from April 1 to March 26 this year, over 60.80 lakh households have completed 100 days of employment.
of the 60.80 lakh households, 10.20 lakh are from Rajasthan alone, followed by 7.42 lakh households from Uttar Pradesh and 6.88 lakh households from Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, there is a massive 56.5 percent jump in the number of households which have completed 100 days of work under the rural job guarantee scheme.
In the last financial year, 5.23 crore households had availed of the scheme and 38.83 lakh households completed 100 days of work.
As per the data available, the households which completed 100 days of work under the scheme in 2018-19 was pegged at 50.32 lakh, 27.51 lakh in 2017-18, 38.09 lakh in 2016-17, 44.23 lakh in 2015-16, 23.15 lakh in 2014-15, 44.46 lakh in 2013-14, 48.34 lakh in 2012-13 and 38.31 lakh households in 2011-12.
Under MGNREGA, every rural household, an adult member of which volunteers to do unskilled manual work, is entitled to at least 100 days of paid employment in a financial year.
The spike in employment under MGNREGA under the current year is widely attributed to the migration of the workers from the urban to the rural areas as a result of the COVID-19-induced lockdown that was announced in March 2020.
MGNREGA is said to have provided safety to the millions of workers who shifted back to their hometowns and villages after having lost jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NREGA is a flagship scheme rolled out by the Congress-led UPA government in 2006 which was later was renamed as MGNREGA in the year 2009. It guarantees at least 100 days of employment in a financial year to unskilled rural households at a pre-determined minimum wage rate.
