Rural Employment Guarantee: From MGNREGA to VB-G RAM G
The MGNREGA Design (2005 to 2026)
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act promised 100 days of unskilled work a year to rural households that asked for it.
For nearly two decades, MGNREGA was the world’s largest workfare programme.
Passage
Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 2005, and it was renamed after Mahatma Gandhi in 2009.
The promise
Every rural household could ask for up to 100 days of unskilled manual work a year.
Job cards
Households registered and received a job card, and they applied for work at the Gram Panchayat.
Demand-driven
If work was requested and not provided within 15 days, workers could claim an unemployment allowance.
A household with a job card submits an application and is assigned to a village project.
Actual days averaged far lower.
- The Act passed in 2005.
- It offered up to 100 days a year.
- Job cards registered households.
- Work was meant to be demand-driven.
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