The UPA government's MGNREGA scheme provided jobs to 5.49 crore households during 2010-11, said the Economic Survey 2011-12 tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday. It said that there was a steady increase in the scheme's coverage as only 4.51 crore households benefited from the scheme in 2008-09.

The Survey said the scheme generated 257.15 working days last year and women contributed to 48 per cent of this. Over half – 52 per cent – of the total beneficiaries belonged to SC-ST communities.

Interestingly, the Survey shows that while the government's total outlay on the scheme and the average wage paid have both gone up, the average number of days that beneficiaries could work under the scheme has dipped.

On an average, a family registered under the scheme got 47 working days. In 2009-10, the scheme provided an average 54 working days to a family, while the average wage increased from Rs 65 in 2006-07 to Rs 100 in 2010-11, the Survey said. It added that to make the scheme's implementation more transparent, a service delivery project for information and communications technology and a biometrics-related system had been developed on PPP basis.

The Survey pointed out that the scheme has “successfully raised” the bargaining power of agricultural labour, resulting in higher agricultural wages, improved economic outcome, fewer distress migration. With better planning of project design and capacity building of the panchayati raj institutions, pitfalls in implementation can be plugged.

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