Demand For Work Under MGNREGS Up This June
The Wire Staff
New Delhi: Demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is up in June of this year when compared to June 2024, data compiled by the rural development ministry and sourced by news outlets show.
Around 27.59 million households sought work under the scheme in June 2025. The number was 26.39 million in June 2024. This is a 4.5% rise.
When it comes to individuals, 35.49 million people sought work under the scheme this June, up 3.6% from a year earlier, showed the data. This is a 3.6% rise.
A report on Economic Times notes that poor rain in key states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Assam could be responsible for this. This meant limited migration to farming options. As the geographical distribution of rainfall improves, there could be greater migration of MGNREGS labourers to agriculture in July and August.
Source: MGNREGS website.
Despite the Union government’s consistent efforts to underplay the primacy of the MGNREGS, a report found that the Ministry of Rural Development has sought an increased outlay – of Rs 5.23 lakh crore – for the scheme for five years until 2029-30. The report says that the outlay for five years till 2029-2030 is nearly 12% higher than the Union government’s release of Rs 4.68 lakh crore for MGNREGS during the previous five financial years, from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025.
The Wire has reported earlier how in an indication of fresh economic strain in rural India, demand for unskilled work under the MGNREGS has seen an increase in April and May this year, according to data from the rural development ministry.
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