Lok Sabha Question No. 2531 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-02
Subject: Work Demanded by Household under MGNREGS
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Balubhau (Alias Suresh Narayan) Dhanorkar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

## LOK  SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2531 ANSWERED ON 02/08/2022

## WORK DEMANDED BY HOUSEHOLD UNDER MGNREGS

## 2531.   SHRI BALUBHAU ALIAS SURESH NARAYAN DHANORKAR:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  number  of  households  demanding  work  under  the  Mahatma  Gandhi National  Rural  Employment  Guarantee  Scheme  (MGNREGS)  has  shot  up  to  3.07 crore (the highest since the inception of the scheme) in May 2022;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether work demanded by households in May 2022 was 43 per cent higher than the five-year average during the pre-pandemic years 2015-2019;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the steps taken by the Government to create employment in rural areas during the last three years?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)

(a)to(d)     Mahatma  Gandhi  National  Rural  Employment  Guarantee  Scheme  (Mahatma Gandhi  NREGS)  is  a  demand  driven  wage  employment  scheme,  which  provide  for  the enhancement  of  livelihood  security  of  the  households  in  rural  areas  of  the  country  by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

Details  of  the  household  demanded  employment  during  the  month  of  May  in  Year  2015, 2016,  2017,  2018,  2019,  2020,  2021  and  2022  under  Mahatma  Gandhi  NREGS  are  given below:

| Year                                                                        |   2015 |   2016 |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |   2020 |   2021 |   2022 |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Number of households demanded employment during the month of May (in crore) |   1.64 |   2.53 |   2.57 |   2.08 |   2.48 |   3.73 |   2.66 |   3.07 |

(e)      There  are  multifarious  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  create  employment  in  rural areas in the last 3 years. Some of the notable initiatives are listed below:

- (i)   Project 'UNNATI', launched in December 2019 by Government of India, is a skilling project  that  intends  to  upgrade  the  skill  base  of  the  Mahatma  Gandhi  NREGS workers,  and  thereby  improve  their  livelihoods,  so  that  they  can  move  from  the current partial employment to full employment.
- (ii)  There  are  two  skill  development  programme  for  rural  youth  under  Deendayal Antyodaya  Yojana-National  Rural  Livelihoods  Mission  (DAY-NRLM),  namely, Deen  Dayal  Upadhyaya  Grameen  Kaushalya  Yojana  (DDU-GKY)  and  Rural  Self Employment  Training  institutes  (RSETIs).  Both  these  programmes  are  aimed  at increasing employability of rural youth, either for wage  employment  or  self employment.
- (iii) Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) under  DAY-NRLM programme supports the Self-Help Groups and their family members to set-up small enterprises in to non-farm sector.
- (iv) The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has launched the Rural Mason Training (RMT)  program  under  the  Pradhan  Mantri  Awaas  Yojana-  Gramin  (PMAY-G)  to address the issue of insufficient number of skilled masons for construction of quality PMAY-G houses. The initiative additionally generates livelihood opportunities for the rural workforce.
- (v)  Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is implementing Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) under Skill India Mission for skill based training of the youth across the country  (including youth belonging to rural areas) under Short Term Training (STT) courses. Under PMKVY, STT is linked to placement.
- (vi) At present, third phase of PMKVY i.e. PMKVY 3.0 is being implemented. PMKVY 3.0 is a demand  driven  scheme  with  bottom-up  approach  and  District Skill Committees (DSCs) have been entrusted with the task of identifying local demand, based on which training has been arranged in the district which strengthens the local skill capability including in the rural areas.
- (vii) Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) was launched on 21 st February 2016 with attempts to make the selected rural areas in form of the cluster, socially, economically and physically sustainable  regions  by  providing  economic,  social  and infrastructure amenities, thus leading to sustainable and balanced regional development  in  the  country.  The  Mission  focuses  on  holistic  development  of  300 Rurban clusters.

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