IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bjc/journl/v13y2026i3p472-476.html

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005: A Brief Review

Author

Listed:
  • Dr. D. Tata Rao

    (Assistant Professor & Course Coordinator, Department of Rural Development, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Srikakulam, Etcherla, Andhra Pradesh)

  • Dr. B. Muralidhara Rao

    (Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Development, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Srikakulam, Etcherla, Andhra Pradesh)

Abstract

The Govt. of India is set to introduce a new rural employment law in the Lok Sabha, proposing to repeal the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with another legislation, titled the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025. The bill seeks to replace the MGNREGA with a revamped framework aimed at aligning rural employment and development with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) is considered to be a game changer for rural India. India's rural economy remains the backbone of its socio-economic condition, with approximately 60% of the population residing in rural areas and a majority dependent on agriculture and allied activities. Yet, the sector faces persistent structural challenges that manifest as agrarian distress, including fragmented landholdings, low productivity, scarcity of irrigation, and fluctuating market prices the study evaluates the scheme’s effects on employment, income, women’s empowerment, poverty, and migration. The review confirms that MGNREGA has significantly improved rural livelihoods by providing income security, enhancing women's participation, and reducing distress migration. However, the analysis also highlights persistent implementation challenges, including regional disparities, wage payment delays, and corruption. The findings are summarized using tables to provide a robust, evidence-based assessment for policymakers and researchers. In light of such questions, this article, rather than engaging in debate over the various divisions of opinion, lets the figures speak for themselves. It collates the relevant statistics in user-friendly form and the concluding analysis then briefly analyses particularly the inter-state differences in the MGNREGS performance for the period of 2006–25.

Suggested Citation

  • Dr. D. Tata Rao & Dr. B. Muralidhara Rao, 2026. "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005: A Brief Review," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 13(3), pages 472-476, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bjc:journl:v:13:y:2026:i:3:p:472-476
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/uploads/vol13-iss3-pg472-476-202603_pdf.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/view/mahatma-gandhi-national-rural-employment-guarantee-act-2005-a-brief-review/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clément Imbert & John Papp, 2015. "Labor Market Effects of Social Programs: Evidence from India's Employment Guarantee," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 233-263, April.
    2. Afridi, Farzana & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop & Sahoo, Soham, 2012. "Female Labour Force Participation and Child Education in India: The Effect of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," IZA Discussion Papers 6593, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Ravi, Shamika & Engler, Monika, 2015. "Workfare as an Effective Way to Fight Poverty: The Case of India’s NREGS," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 57-71.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rachel Godfrey†Wood & Benjamin C. R. Flower, 2018. "Does Guaranteed employment promote resilience to climate change? The case of India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 586-604, March.
    2. Merfeld, Joshua D., 2019. "Spatially heterogeneous effects of a public works program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 151-167.
    3. Mushtaq Ahmad Malla, 2020. "MGNREGA in Kashmir: An Analysis of Labour Market Outcomes and Livelihood Security," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 424-446, December.
    4. Merfeld, Joshua D, 2017. "Spatially Heterogeneous Effects of a Public Works Program," MPRA Paper 80630, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Drèze, Jean & Khera, Reetika, 2017. "Recent Social Security Initiatives in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 555-572.
    6. Parmar, Divya & Banerjee, Aneesh, 2019. "Impact of an employment guarantee scheme on utilisation of maternal healthcare services: Results from a natural experiment in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 285-293.
    7. Jules Gazeaud & Victor Stephane, 2023. "Productive Workfare? Evidence from Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 265-290, January.
    8. Bagavathinathan, Karan Singh & Chaurey, Ritam, 2020. "Workfare programs and children’s meals intake: Evidence from India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Anders Kjelsrud & Kristin Vikan Sjurgard, 2022. "Public Work and Private Violence," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(9), pages 1791-1806, September.
    10. Parantap Basu & Rajesh Raj S. N & Kunal Sen, 2024. "Payment delay in workfare programmes and household welfare: Theory and some evidence from India," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 92(2), pages 93-121, March.
    11. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Public Work Programs and Gender-based Violence: The Case of NREGA in India," Discussion Papers 15-09, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    12. Aanchal Bagga & Marcus Holmlund & Nausheen Khan & Subha Mani & Eric Mvukiyehe & Patrick Premand, 2026. "Do Public Works Programs Have Sustained Impacts? A Review of Experimental Studies from LMICs," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 41(1), pages 1-38.
    13. Bahal, Girish & Shrivastava, Anand, 2021. "Supply variabilities in public workfares," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    14. Ravallion, Martin, 2019. "Guaranteed employment or guaranteed income?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 209-221.
    15. Chatterjee, Jagori & Merfeld, Joshua D., 2020. "Protecting Girls from Droughts with Social Safety Nets," IZA Discussion Papers 13694, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Mihir Shah, 2016. "Should India do away with the MGNREGA?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(1), pages 125-153, March.
    17. Santangelo, G., 2019. "Firms and Farms: The Local Effects of Farm Income on Firms’ Demand," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1924, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    18. Marianne Bertrand & Bruno Crépon & Alicia Marguerie & Patrick Premand, 2017. "Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program," World Bank Publications - Reports 28460, The World Bank Group.
    19. Misra, Kartik, 2019. "Does historical land inequality attenuate the positive impact of India’s employment guarantee program?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Gupta, Bhanu & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop, 2016. "Local funds and political competition: Evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 14-30.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bjc:journl:v:13:y:2026:i:3:p:472-476. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Renu Malsaria (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.