New Delhi: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) generated 3.1 billion man-days and an average of 521 million man-days of employment per household in FY24, up 5.2% and 9% from a year ago, according to the economic survey presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
It said that the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) has benefited 37 million women and promoted 9 million self-help groups (SHGs) since its inception in June last year.
Furthermore, under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen, about 115 million toilets were constructed till July 10 and 117 million households were provided with tap water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the study found.
MGNREGS aims to improve the livelihood security of households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed paid employment per financial year to every household whose adult members voluntarily engage in unskilled manual work.
Strengthen arms
DAY-NRLM is one of the world’s largest social sector programmes, focused on strengthening poor households’ access to meaningful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. The programme has helped women gain access to scientific knowledge, specialised skills and valuable exposure to motivate and ignite new energy to transform their livelihoods and undertake new activities.
They have set up ventures like solar panels to make sanitary napkins, soaps, detergents, face masks, sanitizers, fencing materials, etc. The mission was started in 2011 and is active in 7,135 blocks in 742 districts of 28 states and 6 UTs.
Lakhpati Didi, under DAYNRLM, which was launched last year, aims to help 30 million SHG households earn a minimum annual income of ₹1 lakh within three years.
The emphasis is on diversified livelihood activities, district level planning, household support, convergence of government departments and capacity building of staff and community members.
“The potential of SHGs should be tapped by enabling their scaling up into larger enterprises by providing professional support and management. With proper training and professional guidance, women's collectives can grow into self-sustaining enterprises on a large scale,” the economic study said.
Maximum impact
While MGNREGS started as a wage employment scheme, it has evolved into an asset creation programme for sustainable livelihood diversification. This is evident from the increase in the share of individual beneficiaries in ‘works on individual land’ from 9.6% of total works completed in FY 2014 to 73.3% in FY 2024.
To maximise the impact of the programme, MGNREGS has been merged with various initiatives of individual ministries such as the ministries of animal husbandry and dairy, agriculture and farmers' welfare, AYUSH, Panchayati Raj and Defence.
Data for FY24 shows that despite Tamil Nadu having less than 1% of the country’s poor population, it accounted for nearly 15% of all MGNREGS funds released. Similarly, Kerala, with just 0.1% of the poor population, utilised nearly 4% of the nation’s MGNREGS funds. Together, these states generated 510 million person-days of employment. In contrast, Bihar and UP, with around 45% of the poor population, accounted for just 17% of the MGNREGA funds and generated 530 million person-days of employment.
Ahead of Sitharaman's presentation of the full budget on Tuesday, economists and industry experts do not expect any increase in budgetary allocation over the interim budget for rural development programmes, except housing.
“I do not foresee any change in the budget allocation for rural projects for FY25; it could be as much as in the interim budget,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda.
“The progress of monsoon is also satisfactory now. So there is no need to do anything in NREGA and PM-KISAN—two big schemes where the government is spending more,” he added. A good monsoon will solve some of the rural distress because the largest contributor to rural India's income is still agriculture.
Economists and industry stakeholders earlier urged the government to increase allocations for rural projects and boost housing programs to stimulate consumer demand as private consumption has grown significantly slower than the annual economic growth of nearly 8%.
Rural India Growth
Consumption growth has remained weak since the pandemic. Private consumption is recovering, growing 4% in the March quarter, compared with 1.5% a year ago, but it is only just catching up with the pre-pandemic trend and remains below the pre-pandemic average of 6.3% in 2019.
Rural India's monthly per capita consumption, adjusted for inflation, rose by over 40% from FY12 to FY23, data from the statistics ministry showed, although it remains lower than urban consumption. Without adjustment for inflation, the figures stood at ₹6,459 for urban households and ₹3,773 for rural households in FY23, compared to ₹2,630 and ₹1,430 in fiscal year 2012.
The government is focusing on improving the economy through decentralized planning, improved access to credit, youth education, improved livelihood opportunities, women empowerment, social safety net provisions, basic housing, education, health and sanitation, etc. As part of the plan, the government is working to provide basic amenities to all households in rural areas through many plans and programs.
Under Pradhan Mantri Away Yojana Gramin, 26 million houses were built for the poor in the last nine years up to July 10, 2024, 103 million LPG connections were provided under PM Ujjwala Yojana from 2016 to June 2, 2024 and 1.5 million km of roads were constructed under Gram Sadak Yojana between FY15 and July 10, 2024. As many as 98 million beneficiaries were registered with regional rural banks and 1.9 million beneficiaries were registered with rural cooperative banks as of June 26, 2024 and PFMS e-GramSwaraj was integrated with over 263,000 Panchayats out of 279,000 that were roped in for their payment transactions as of July 10, 2024, as per data from the ministry concerned.
In the interim budget, the government has ₹2.65 trillion to the Ministry of Rural Development, including ₹86,000 crore for MGNREGS. The allocation to the ministry was ₹26,824 crore higher than the revised estimates for FY24.
