Funds for MNREGA slashed by 25% for year 2022-23

New Delhi: Even though the dependence of the country's poorest on MNREGA soared during the pandemic because of widespread unemployment due to job cuts and gloomy economy, the allocation in Budget 2022 for the government's rural employment programme has been slashed by 25 per cent.

The MNREGA fund allocation is Rs 73,000 crore for the financial year 2022-23, down from the revised estimate for the previous year (2021-22), which was Rs 98,000 crore. This is 25.51 per cent less than the revised estimate for the current financial year.

MGNREGA is aimed at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

In the first phase, the scheme was implemented in 200 most backward



districts with effect from February 2, 2006, This was subsequently extended to additional districts, 113 with effect from April 1, 2007 and 17 from May 15, 2007.

The remaining districts were included under the Act with effect from April 1, 2008. The Act now covers all rural districts of the country.  Data shows that the demand for rural jobs have increased during the lockdown period when many labourers return to their villages.

In December 2018, 1.9 crore households had demanded work under MNREGA. In December 2019, that dipped slightly to 1.7 crore households. But by December 2020 - the year of the prolonged lockdown — there was a big jump in the number of households demanding work, to 2.7 crore. Last December, the demand for work continued to remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, at 2.4 crore, as per the Government statistics.