Govt cuts funding for rural jobs scheme to Rs 60,000 crore in the next fiscal

The government has reduced spending on the rural jobs guarantee scheme for the next fiscal year to Rs 60000 crore ($7.34 billion), the budget document showed on Wednesday.

The allocation is lower than the revised Rs 89,400 crore spending outlay for 2022/23, and the smallest since 2017/18.

Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, introduced over 15 years ago, citizens can enrol for work such as building roads, digging wells, or creating other rural infrastructure and receive a minimum wage for at least 100 days each year.


About 37 million workers were looking for work in December due to a rebound in the labour force participation rate driven by the return of women workers and rural youth joining the labour market as fears of the pandemic eased. In December, India's unemployment rate rose to 8.30%, the highest in 16 months, from 8.00% in the previous month, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).