MNREGA Scheme

• 25 Apr 2025

Why in News?  

The Rajasthan government has changed the work timing under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) keeping in mind the convenience and health of workers during the summer season. 

Key Points 

• About MNREGA: 
  • MGNREGA is one of the world's largest employment guarantee programmes launched in 2005 by the Ministry of Rural Development. 
  • The scheme provides a legal guarantee of a minimum of one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do unskilled manual work related to public works at minimum wages. 
  • Active Employees: 14.32 Crore (Session 2023-24) 
• Key Features: 
  • The cornerstone of MGNREGA's design is its legal guarantee , which ensures that any rural adult can request work and should be provided with work within 15 days. 
    • If this commitment is not fulfilled then “unemployment allowance” should be provided. 
  • This requires that women be given priority in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries who have registered and requested for work are women. 
    • Section 17 of MGNREGA makes social audit of all works executed under MNREGA mandatory. 
• Implementing Agency: 
  • The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Government of India is monitoring the entire implementation of the scheme in collaboration with the state governments. 
• Objective: 
  • This act was introduced with the aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people , it mainly aims to provide semi or unskilled work to the people living below the poverty line in rural India. 
  • It attempts to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor in the country.