Rural jobs scheme sees demand fading amid better work options

New Delhi: Improved economic activities that generate more profitable work has seen fewer people seeking work under the government's flagship rural employment programme for the first time in six months in April from a year before.

About 27.31 million people sought work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in April, down 9.5% from a year before, preliminary data compiled by the rural development ministry showed.

The number of households that these workers represented touched 20.17 million, a 6.3% fall from a year before.

The number of people seeking work under the scheme had risen only 1.6% year on year in March, 1.4% in February and 13.4% in January.

"Despite an unfavourable base effect, work demand moderated in April. This strongly suggests economic activities have gained traction," said a senior official.

In April 2024, the number of people demanding MGNREGS work had declined 5% from a year earlier.

Most of the people who demanded work under the scheme in April were from Andhra Pradesh (5.08 million), followed by Telangana (2.75 million), Bihar (2.59 million), Maharashtra (2.30 million), Madhya Pradesh (2.05 million), Rajasthan (2 million), Karnataka (1.92 million) and Uttar Pradesh (1.78 million).

The latest Economic Survey has projected India's growth to range between 6.3% and 6.8% in 2025-26, against an estimated 6.5% last fiscal.

The government has budgeted ₹86,000 crore for the scheme for 2025-26, keeping it unchanged from the previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, demand under the scheme dropped 7.7% in 2024-25 year-on-year, thanks to moderation earlier in the financial year. Just over 307 million people sought work during the fiscal year, compared with 332.7 million a year earlier, according to the ministry's data.

As many as 2.86 billion person-days were generated under the demand-driven scheme last fiscal, down from 3.09 billion a year before, but higher than revised 2024-25 target of 2.43 billion. The data gets revised once the updated information flows in.