MGNREGS, PMAY-G Take 75% of Rural Development Budget: Report

A new report by PRS Legislative has said that the flagship rural employment scheme MGREGS and housing scheme PMAY-G together are allocated 75% of the entire budgetary allocation for the Rural Development Department.  

The union budget for 2025-26 allocated the Ministry of Rural Development an amount of Rs 190,406 crores.  

With the aim of fostering economic growth in rural areas and providing social security to the under-privileged, the Department of Rural Development received a budget of Rs 187,755 which is 8% higher than the revised estimates for the year 2024-25, while the Department of Land Resources was provided with a budget of Rs 2,651 crores which is 35% higher than the revised estimate for 2024-25. This information was reported by the think tank PRS Legislative.  

The schemes, which accounted for 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a fiscal year for adults of rural households, received 73% of the allocated budget along with PMAY-G, which received 29%.

As expected, there was a decline in the demand of work described in the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in August 2024. It is evident from the data that during the month, approximately 16.06 million households attempted to work under the scheme as compared to 26 million households in August 2023. The reported demand is the lowest since October 2020.

Scope of mandatory Aadhaar payment integration in MGNREGS still to the Parliament, does not possess any Adivasi-Mundabha periods. 

Parliament, New Parliament, Lok sabha, Rajya sabha 

Parliamentary committee expressed discomfort regarding low wages within the MGNREGS and with the legislations of aid change. 

As expected, there was a decline in the demand of work described in the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in August 2024. This is followed by National Rural Livelihoods Mission and PMGSY, which each account for ten percent of the department's allocation 

According to the PRS report, between 2015 and 2022, the budgetary allocation to the Department has grown to an average annual rate of 12 percent.

The report mentions that from the year 2020-21 to 2022-23 focusing on procedural schemes like MGNREGS and the scheme of direct benefit transfer to women through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the allocation of the department significantly increased to enhance financial aid during the pandemic. 

PMAY (G) which was launched to fill the gap in demand and supply of rural housing and aims to provide housing for every person in the country by the year 2022, Rs 54,832 crores which is 69 percent over the revised estimate of the allocation for the year 2024-25. 

Nonetheless, as per revised estimate for 2024-25, report states that only 59 percent of funds allocated to the scheme had been utilized. 

Using the Socio Economic And Caste Census or SECC of 2011, the rural housing shortage was predicted to be 4.03 crores. 

The PMGSY scheme which intends to provide all weather road connectivity to all eligible rural habitations has been allocated Rs 19,000 crore in 2025-26, this is a 31% increase over the allocation in 2024-25.

For the year 2023-24, the Department of Land Resources has been allocated Rs 2651.41 crore, which is an astounding 35% larger than what was budgeted before. They have never received this massive funding and the report states that they have spent less than the estimate of 2013-14. The funds that were allocated were significantly underused, as was the case the previous year.

The Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana Watershed Development Component are initiatives that the department undertakes to improve digitization of land records in India.

DILRMP was anticipated to receive 140 crore in funding for the year 2023-24, however, that figure was dropped to 120 crore and represents a 15% decline from the previous years' estimate. Fund usage has been consistent since 2017 apart from 2018 and 2019 where it was low as recounted by the report.