The Crossbill Team
A recent analysis of rural employment trends has raised fresh concerns over the shrinking footprint of wage employment programmes in India, pointing to a substantial contraction in work opportunities and earnings during the last financial year.
The findings, released amid debates surrounding the transition to a new rural employment framework, highlight a significant downturn in participation levels across several states.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS) witnessed a sharp fall in scale and reach in 2025-26 as per a latest study, released on May 8 by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and LibTech, reported The Hindu.
The study titled, ‘Declining employment and earnings under MGNREGA in FY 2025-26’, stated: “At national level, MGNREGA witnessed a consistent decline across key employment indicators in FY 2025-26 when compared with its previous year. Persondays generated took a significant decline of 21.5%.”
In their report, LibTech – a consortium of engineers, social workers and social scientists – concluded that “the number of households completing 100 days dropped substantially from 0.37 crore to 0.22 crore in FY 2025-26; a 40.5% drop.”
While Tamil Nadu (42.8%) witnessed the highest drop in persondays, this trend was evident in other states such as Haryana which witnessed a fall of 41.7% in persondays, followed by Himachal Pradesh and Telangana at 41% and 40.2% respectively.
In their press release, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and LibTech mentioned that the report which was based on official MGNREGA MIS data had noticed “the decline was geographically widespread, with 15 out of 20 major states analysed registering a fall in persondays generated during the year.”
In December 2025, MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), a scheme related to providing rural households 100-days of employment, and implemented by the erstwhile UPA government, was repealed in Parliament.
The new legislation, referred to as the VB-GRAM G Bill [Vikskit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill], has drawn criticism for putting the financial onus of running the scheme on states.
Following the release of the latest study, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha has urged the Union government to “hold structured consultations with civil society organisations and workers’ collectives on the transition to VB-GRAM G.”
The group has also requested that the technological barriers which restrict workers’ access to employment be revoked and transparency is ensured with respect to the new framework.
The report’s findings are expected to intensify discussions on rural livelihoods and employment security, with activists and researchers calling for policy reassessment to prevent further erosion of guaranteed wage opportunities in rural India.
The findings, released amid debates surrounding the transition to a new rural employment framework, highlight a significant downturn in participation levels across several states.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS) witnessed a sharp fall in scale and reach in 2025-26 as per a latest study, released on May 8 by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and LibTech, reported The Hindu.
The study titled, ‘Declining employment and earnings under MGNREGA in FY 2025-26’, stated: “At national level, MGNREGA witnessed a consistent decline across key employment indicators in FY 2025-26 when compared with its previous year. Persondays generated took a significant decline of 21.5%.”
In their report, LibTech – a consortium of engineers, social workers and social scientists – concluded that “the number of households completing 100 days dropped substantially from 0.37 crore to 0.22 crore in FY 2025-26; a 40.5% drop.”
While Tamil Nadu (42.8%) witnessed the highest drop in persondays, this trend was evident in other states such as Haryana which witnessed a fall of 41.7% in persondays, followed by Himachal Pradesh and Telangana at 41% and 40.2% respectively.
In their press release, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and LibTech mentioned that the report which was based on official MGNREGA MIS data had noticed “the decline was geographically widespread, with 15 out of 20 major states analysed registering a fall in persondays generated during the year.”
In December 2025, MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), a scheme related to providing rural households 100-days of employment, and implemented by the erstwhile UPA government, was repealed in Parliament.
The new legislation, referred to as the VB-GRAM G Bill [Vikskit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill], has drawn criticism for putting the financial onus of running the scheme on states.
Following the release of the latest study, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha has urged the Union government to “hold structured consultations with civil society organisations and workers’ collectives on the transition to VB-GRAM G.”
The group has also requested that the technological barriers which restrict workers’ access to employment be revoked and transparency is ensured with respect to the new framework.
The report’s findings are expected to intensify discussions on rural livelihoods and employment security, with activists and researchers calling for policy reassessment to prevent further erosion of guaranteed wage opportunities in rural India.
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