Hyderabad, November 9 2025 : Telangana has witnessed a dramatic 47.6% drop in the number of workdays generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) for April–September 2025, significantly outpacing the national average decline of 10.4%. This worrying trend, highlighted in a new study by LibTech India, has affected lakhs of families and aggravated rural distress.
The fall in workdays was severe across all social categories: Scheduled Castes saw a 48.3% drop, Scheduled Tribes 41.7%, and Other categories 49.5%. Several districts—Medchal, Gadwal, Kamareddy, and Nizamabad—reported declines as steep as 92% this year. While the central government marginally raised daily wages to ₹307, the reduced work allocation has resulted in net income loss for thousands of rural households.
Researchers attribute the collapse to digitization challenges, the deletion of over 5 lakh job cards during Aadhaar-based payment rollout, and lagging administrative renewal processes. Experts are urging state and central governments to restore inactive job cards and ensure fair allocation of work, especially to the worst-hit districts.
Key Recommendations
- Restoring job access to deleted cards through a dedicated campaign
- Loosening e-KYC requirements for uninterrupted wage payments
- Prioritizing job creation in high-unemployment zones
With local body elections approaching and rural distress peaking, corrective action on NREGA implementation could shape both governance credibility and farm sector stability in the coming months.
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