MGNREGA programme surged nine-year high in 2019-20

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) programme surged to a nine-year high in 2019-20. According to the MGNREGA official portal, 5.47 crore households sought MGNREGA works, the highest since 2010-11, when the number was 5.5 crore. More individuals too worked under MGNREGA in 2019-20, with 7.86 crore employed at various sites across the country. This is the highest since 2012-13, when 7.97 crore individuals worked under this programme.

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Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members (at least 18 years of age) volunteer to do unskilled work. The central government bears the full cost of unskilled labour, and 75% of the cost of material (the rest is borne by the states). It is a demand-driven, social security and labour law that aims to enforce the ‘right to work’.