Demand for rural jobs scheme increases again in May

CLOSE TO 31.7 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS APPLY FOR WORK

- MUKESH JAGOTA

• 9.4 mn households fail to get wage employment under MG-NREGA

THE GAP BETWEEN demand and supply for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme widened in May, as more households lined up for wage employment to supplement their income or for sustenance.

Under the MG-NREG Act (NREGA), close to 31.7 million households applied for work in May but only 22.3 million got it, data from the Ministry of rural development showed.

After the pandemic years, which forced the government to scale up spending on the scheme, the disbursal of funds were apparently curbed in FY23, given a pick-up economic activities. A decline in demand for work was also evident in the last fiscal, though analysts say this may have been partly due to a slowness in accepting the registrations. The gap between employment sought and jobs provided hovered around 5 million or less in most months of FY23, but in May 2023, it touched 9.4 million.