A dramatic decline in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Assam has seen the number of households receiving the scheme's core promise of 100 days of work collapse to just 7,237 in the financial year 2025-26 — a fraction of what was delivered just four years ago.
The figures, available with The Sentinel, point to what analysts describe as a serious failure in implementation at both the state and panchayat levels.
The numbers tell a stark story of steady erosion in delivery.
In FY 2021-22, a total of 51,954 households across Assam received 100 days of work under the scheme. The figure dropped sharply to 21,427 in FY 2022-23, and fell further to 19,416 in FY 2023-24. There was a marginal recovery to 23,906 in FY 2024-25, before the figure collapsed to just 7,237 in the just-concluded FY 2025-26 — the lowest in recent memory.
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The drastic fall is being attributed to improper implementation of the scheme, which has since been renamed the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G.
Observers also point to a lack of political and administrative thrust from the state government and local panchayat bodies, who are responsible for identifying and creating work under the scheme at the grassroots level.
In a particularly troubling finding, 15 Gaon Panchayats in Assam registered nil expenditure under the scheme in the last financial year — meaning they spent nothing at all on rural employment generation.
Assam currently has 33.29 lakh job cards registered among rural households. The average wage rate under the scheme stood at Rs 254.01 per person per day in the last financial year — a figure that underscores how critical the 100-day guarantee is for the daily livelihoods of rural families who depend on it.