Vijayawada: In what could be a worrying trend, person-days generated under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has witnessed a sharp fall in Andhra Pradesh during 2024-25.
The state witnessed 5.2% decline in person-days generated even as national person-days fell by 7%. Making it further worrisome, only 5.1 lakh households in Andhra Pradesh completed 100 days of work under MGNREGA — a 25.8% drop compared to the 6.9 lakh households in the previous year.
An NGO working in tracking the NREGS programme has released the state’s performance report here on Wednesday. LibTech India’s latest data-driven assessment of MGNREGA implementation in Andhra Pradesh for 2024–25 reveals a concerning trend as the number of households registered for the program has increased while the provision of work has sharply declined, accompanied by rising wage gaps.
“The decline in person-days in AP is particularly notable because household participation stayed stable—suggesting constraints in work provision, not registration,” said senior executive of LibTech, Chakradhar Budha.
He explained that there is a steeper decline in employment than national average. “Average employment per household in AP dropped by 6% (from 54.89 to 51.62), compared to a national decline of 3.6%. This points to a greater erosion of work availability in AP than at national level,” said the report. It further analysed that there is a sharp drop in full-year employment which outpaces the national trend.
“Its really unfortunate to see that the percentage of households completing 100 days of work declined from 14.8% to 10.9% in AP, compared to 7.5% to 7% drop at the national level,” anguished Chakradhar.
The LibTech said that its report compares Andhra Pradesh’s performance with data from the previous year and situates the findings by looking at national-level statistics, which highlight both regional disparities and some relatively positive trends in comparison.
The report found that there is mid-year employment crash after MoRD advisory. It said that though, April 2024 began strongly, with 52.3% more person-days than April 2023, but July saw a 56.4% drop compared to July 2023. This mid-year slump followed a Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) advisory issued on 7 May 2024 regarding non-compliance with expenditure norms.
While person-days rebounded in the second half of FY 2024–25 with Sept to Feb consistently outperforming the same months in the previous year—this recovery did not fully offset the early-year decline.
The state witnessed 5.2% decline in person-days generated even as national person-days fell by 7%. Making it further worrisome, only 5.1 lakh households in Andhra Pradesh completed 100 days of work under MGNREGA — a 25.8% drop compared to the 6.9 lakh households in the previous year.
An NGO working in tracking the NREGS programme has released the state’s performance report here on Wednesday. LibTech India’s latest data-driven assessment of MGNREGA implementation in Andhra Pradesh for 2024–25 reveals a concerning trend as the number of households registered for the program has increased while the provision of work has sharply declined, accompanied by rising wage gaps.
“The decline in person-days in AP is particularly notable because household participation stayed stable—suggesting constraints in work provision, not registration,” said senior executive of LibTech, Chakradhar Budha.
He explained that there is a steeper decline in employment than national average. “Average employment per household in AP dropped by 6% (from 54.89 to 51.62), compared to a national decline of 3.6%. This points to a greater erosion of work availability in AP than at national level,” said the report. It further analysed that there is a sharp drop in full-year employment which outpaces the national trend.
“Its really unfortunate to see that the percentage of households completing 100 days of work declined from 14.8% to 10.9% in AP, compared to 7.5% to 7% drop at the national level,” anguished Chakradhar.
The LibTech said that its report compares Andhra Pradesh’s performance with data from the previous year and situates the findings by looking at national-level statistics, which highlight both regional disparities and some relatively positive trends in comparison.
The report found that there is mid-year employment crash after MoRD advisory. It said that though, April 2024 began strongly, with 52.3% more person-days than April 2023, but July saw a 56.4% drop compared to July 2023. This mid-year slump followed a Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) advisory issued on 7 May 2024 regarding non-compliance with expenditure norms.
While person-days rebounded in the second half of FY 2024–25 with Sept to Feb consistently outperforming the same months in the previous year—this recovery did not fully offset the early-year decline.
