National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:
In May 2022, 2.61 crore households worked under the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), which is 17.39% more than in the same month last year.
Key Findings:
- There was a rise in demand for NREGS after the dip in April. In April 2022, 1.86 crore families availed the NREGS, which is 12.27% lower than the number recorded in April last year.
- The number of households that availed the NREGS is lower than May 2020, when the demand sharply rose to 3.30 crore as migrant workers returned to their villages in wake of lockdown during the first wave of Covid-19.
- But it is higher than the 2.10 crore figure recorded in May 2019 (pre-pandemic times).
- In terms of states, Uttar Pradesh saw the maximum increase in terms of the absolute increase in the number of families availing the NREGS, followed by Tamil Nadu.
- Whereas, the maximum decline was recorded in Chhattisgarh followed by Jharkhand.
- In the past 15 years, it has created more than 31 billion person-days of employment.
- In the last 15 years, the government has invested more than Rs 6.4 lakh crore in this demand-driven programme.
- In the rural sections of the nation, more than 30 million water conservation-related assets have been developed since 2006.
