20.7 mn households seek MGNREGA work in Jan, 2.26% less than in December

But it is about 9.7% more than the pre-pandemic month of Jan 2020; meanwhile, activists flay slashing of MGNREGS budget, say it will cause wage payment delays, suppress work demand

Around 20.7 million households have sought work under the flagship MGNREGS in January 2023, which is about 9.69 per cent more than the pre-pandemic month of January 2020, but almost 11.38 per cent lower than the work demand of January 2021 and 21.41 per cent lower than that of January 2022, data furnished in the MGNREGS website showed.

Overall, sequentially (month-on-month), MGNREGA work demand in January 2023 was 2.26 per cent lower than in December 2022 and significantly lower than the highest monthly demand of FY23 seen in May 2022 (about 30.74 million households . The Centre has reduced allocation