State sees dip in MGNREGA jobs, despite rise in sign-ups

The report “MGNREGA in Jharkhand: A Data-Driven Assessment for FY 2024-25” by LibTech India, based on official government data up to May 8, 2025, revealed a drop of eight percentage points in person-days generated during the past fiscal, besides highlighting district-level disparities in employment generation under the scheme in the state.

- Vishal Kant

“The data-driven assessment of MGNREGA implementation in Jharkhand for FY 2024-25 reveals a concerning trend: while the number of households registering for the program has increased, the provision of work has declined,” said Vivek Gupta from LibTech India while releasing the report in association with NREGA Watch.

“Despite the 5.2 per cent increase in household registrations, a 7.4% and 9.7% drop has been recorded in households that worked and workers employed, respectively, in FY 2024-25 compared to FY 2023-24. Nationally, the number of households that worked declined by 3.5 per cent, meaning Jharkhand performed worse in household participation in the flagship rural job scheme,” he added.

The report further stated that the state witnessed a bigger fall in person-days generated, as well as full-year employment (minimum of 100 days of employment) to the registered households, compared to the national average in the same category.