225 million mandays created in FY 25-26 under MGNREGS in Bihar: Official

Set against the revised target of 230 million, the generated mandays show considerable hike in 100-day employment for daily wagers

The state government created around 225 millione mandays in the last fiscal year 2025-26 against the revised target of 230 million mandays under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), indicating higher rural employment generation for unskilled workers under the 100-day job guarantee scheme, officials said.

The state government has a target of 33 million mandays under the old MGNREGS for the next month in this new fiscal year 2026-27, officials said. (HT Photo)

“The generation of mandays under MGNREGA in the FY 25-26 was nearly at the target. We had some issues regarding pending wage arrears which led to lower generation in some places. But employment generation for rural households in the last FY was higher than the first annual target of 210 million, which was later revised to 230 million,” said an official in the Rural Development Department (RDD).

More importantly, the state government has a target of 33 million mandays under the old MGNREGS for the next month in this new fiscal year 2026-27, officials said. There are also indications that the ministry of rural development may sanction around 110-120 million mandays for the next three months and the annual target for the FY 26-27 could be around 220 million based on the average of total mandays sanctioned in last three years for Bihar.

Sources said that the detailed guidelines of the newly launched Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB-G RAM G scheme, which will replace MGNREGA, are likely to be issued in the next few months. Under the new VB-G RAM G scheme, one hundred and twenty-five days of work in each financial year would be provided to rural households whose adult members are enrolled under the scheme for unskilled manual work.

“As the detailed guidelines of the VB-G RAM G scheme to replace MGNREGA have still not been issued, the mandays sanctioned under MGNREGA so far are only for one month and then they would be approved for the next few months,” said another RDD official in the know of the matter.

There is a likelihood that a notification and detailed guidelines for the new VB-G RAM G scheme for guaranteed rural employment to unskilled workers would be issued in the coming months. Then the state government would make the necessary legal provisions for implementing the new scheme, officials said.