Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment Scheme which provides 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. It provides livelihood security, i.e. fall back options for livelihood for the rural households, when no better employment opportunity is available.

The details of households demanded employment and households offered employment under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in last two financial years 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and current financial year 2022-23 (as on 31.03.2023) is given below:

Financial Year	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Households demanded employment (in crore)	8.55	8.06	6.90
Households offered employment (in crore)	8.54	8.02	6.89

(as per NREGASoft)

The financial allocation under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for financial year 2022-23 was Rs. 73,000 crore at Budget Estimate stage, which is enhanced to 89,400 crore at Revised Estimate stage.

There is a budget allocation of Rs. 60,000 crores at Budget Estimate stage for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for financial year 2023-24.

Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand-driven wage employment scheme. Funds release to States/UTs is a continuous process and Central Government is committed to making funds available to States/UTs for the implementation of the Scheme as per the demand for work on the ground.

The Ministry seeks additional funds under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS from the Ministry of Finance as and when required for meeting the demand for work on the ground.

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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