The report added that this rise comes as a result of insufficient rainfall during the early southwest monsoon season and general weakness in rural recovery that pushed up the demand.
Prior to this, the other two times when the number of households availing MGNREGS crossed 3 crore was in May 2020 which was at 3.3 crore and in June 2020 which was at 3.89 crore, Indian Express has reported.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is a flagship scheme aimed at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
On 6 July, Department of Economic Affairs under Ministry of Finance in its monthly review report had stated that an increase in MSP for rabi and kharif crops, a hike in fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane and a rise in the MGNREGS wage rate are expected to improve the financial security of rural households further and boost rural demand.
Meanwhile, the rural development ministry had asked states to organise camps and follow-up with beneficiaries to achieve 100 per cent coverage under under the mandatory Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS). It had also clarified that beneficiaries should be requested to provide their Aadhaar number, but should not be refused work if they do not have one.
The deadline to make workers registered under the national employment guarantee scheme a part of the payment system ended on June 30. The official had said that ABPS is the best route for making wage payment through Direct Benefit Transfer and will help beneficiaries in getting their payment on time. Earlier in May, the Bihar Rural Development Minister Shrawan Kumar had said that the state government had cancelled more than 1.2 crore “inactive” job cards under the MGNREGS in the last one year.
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Updated: 18 Jul 2023, 11:28 AM IST