There has been an exponential increase in the number of person-days generated under MNREGA in the first ten months of 2020-21 compared to the same period in 2019-20. However, data indicates that this increase in person-days of employment has not resulted in the increase in average days of employment per household which still remains below 50. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, which is popularly known as MNREGA, is a social security scheme implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development together with state governments. The scheme guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year, to adult members in a rural household who are willing to do unskilled manual work at a fixed minimum wage. At least 100 days of employment must be provided to unemployed volunteering adults in rural households Section 3 of the Act states that ‘the State Government shall provide to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work not less than one hundred days of such work in a financial year’. What this means is that every state government must provide work of at least 100 days during a financial year, to every household where the adults register themselves to avail of employment under the scheme. An additional fifty days of wage employment is also provided over and above the 100 days in notified drought-affected areas or areas affected by natural calamities on the recommendations of the Ministry of Agriculture. Every Scheduled Tribe household in a forest area who have no other private property except for the land rights provided under the FRA Act, 2006 are also entitled to the same. Number of person-days of work has increased exponentially in 2020-21 In an earlier story by Factly, it was observed that there is an exponential growth in the person-days generated under MNREGA in 2020-21. It was observed that the person-days generated in the first 10 months of 2020-21 was about 46% more than the person-days generated during the same period in 2019-20. Average days of employment provided per household is less than 50 While the mandate is to provide at least 100 days of wage employment per household whose members are willing, the data available on the official portal reveals that the average days of employment provided per household is less than 50. As per the data on the MNREGA portal, each household has received work for only less than half the stipulated number of 100 days on average in 2020-21 and even in earlier years. The average days of employment per household have been calculated by dividing the total number of person-days generated in a year by the number of households that have been provided employment in that year. For instance, in 2019-20, over 265.3 crore person-days were generated and over 5.48 crore households were employed resulting in an average of a little more than 48 days of employment per household. The average days of employment provided per household for the financial year 2016-17 was 46 days and for 2017-18 were 45.7 days. Between 2016-17 and 2019-20, the average days of employment were the highest in 2018-19, when it just crossed 50. However, in 2019-20, this dropped to 48.4 days. In the current financial year 2020-21, with less than 2 months left in the year, the average number of days of employment per household is close to 46. This implies that even if all households are given employment for the remaining days (which is unrealistic) in the ongoing financial year, still the legal mandate of 100 days cannot be achieved. Mizoram reported the highest number of days of employment per household in 2020-21 Going by the same formula used previously, data for the ten-odd months of 2020-21 (until 08 February 2021) indicates that Mizoram reported the highest number of days of employment per household with an average of 89 days followed by Tripura with 64.5, Ladakh with 61.6, and Meghalaya with 58.5. Among the larger states, Madhya Pradesh reported the greatest average number of days per household with 57.6 days. Other larger states with an average of more than 50 days per household include Rajasthan, Kerala, Odisha, and Himachal Pradesh. West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have also reported a greater number than the national average of 46 days of employment per household in 2020-21. On the lower side, the states of Punjab, Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh, have so far provided less than 40 days of employment per household. The states of Punjab and Haryana have reported the highest average number of days of employment per household in 2020-21 during the five-year period of 2016-17 & 2020-21.