Parliament Question: Demand for Jobs under MGNREGS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2749 ANSWERED ON 05/08/2025 DEMAND FOR JOBS UNDER MGNREGS

2749. Dr. D Ravi Kumar:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) the reasons behind the decline in demand for jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) between May and August 2024 including factors like unseasonal rains, return of migrant workers to urban jobs and delays in wage payments;

(b) the steps taken by the Ministry to incorporate more agricultural and allied activities such as compost pits, water conservation and post-harvest management under MGNREGS to boost rural employment;

(c) whether the Ministry monitors job demand under MGNREGS by households and individuals;

(d) if so, details from April to June 2021-22 show that 6.28 crore households demanded work, with 5.97 crore provided employment; and

(e) whether the Ministry is using the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) and Area Officer App for real-time monitoring and accountability? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI KAMLESH PASWAN)

(a): Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment Scheme. It provides livelihood security, i.e. fall back options for livelihood for the rural households, when no better employment opportunity is available. Persondays generated during the months of May to August in the financial years 2023–24 and 2024–25 are given

below:

Page 1 of 3Persondays Generation under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS (figure in crore) Month 2023-24 2024-25 May to August 142.87 112.29 (As per NREGASoft) It may be noted that being a demand driven scheme, there can be variation in job demand. While the work demanded closely matches with the work offered, the difference between work availed with the work demanded is on account of lack of utilisation of such offering by workers owing to availability of better employment opportunities elsewhere, illness or any other relevant factor.

(b): As per Schedule I of Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act 2025, Para 4(2) "Provided that the District Programme Coordinator shall ensure that at least 60% of the works to be taken up in a district in terms of cost shall be for creation of productive assets directly linked to agriculture and allied activities through development of land, water and trees." There are 266 works permissible under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. Out of which 166 works are related to agriculture & allied sector. Further, there are 85 works related to water conservation. It may be noted that construction of compost pits is already a permissible activity under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. Ministry keeps reviewing the list of permissible activities depending upon the requests received from the State Governments or any other source.

After due examination, the new works are included in the permissible activities list.

(c)& (d): The Central Government has initiated several measures to generate awareness about the scheme. These include, (i) to initiate appropriate Information Education and Communication

(IEC) campaigns including wall paintings for the wide dissemination of the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, (ii) to expand scope and coverage of demand registration system to ensure that demand for work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA does not go unregistered, (iii) prepare plans in a participatory mode and approve them in the Gram Sabha, (iv) Organization of ‘RozgarDiwas’.

Page 2 of 3Ministry of Rural Development closely monitors the demand for employment at the ground level in order to ensure that there should be no unmet demand. In the FY 2021-22, 99.55% of the eligible rural households were offered employment against demand. Similarly, during the current Financial Year (FY) 2025-26 (as on 31.07.2025),

99.79% of the eligible rural households have been offered employment against demand.

(e): To ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS), the Ministry has decided that States/UTs shall ensure capturing of attendance at the worksite through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App with two-time stamped, geo-tagged photographs of the workers in a day for all the works (except Individual Beneficiary Work) through NMMS w.e.f. 1st January, 2023.

The implementation of the NMMS application has significantly improved the attendance management system and the overall efficiency of the process. NMMS application also helps in timely payment of wages as wage lists and FTOs can be generated on the same day as on which the attendance has been captured, this process took more time earlier in case of manual attendance system.

During the current financial year 2025-26 (as on 31.07.2025),

95.95 % attendance has been marked through National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) under the Scheme.

Area Officer Monitoring App was launched on May 2021, in a bid to facilitate the authorities to record their findings online. It will also help in recording time stamped and geo-coordinate tagged photographs for all the schemes of Department of Rural Development. It facilitates analysis of findings which in turn helps in implementation of the schemes in a more effective manner.

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