The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. It is an employment generation programme, implemented in consonance with the enforcement of the Section 4 of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA). The scheme is funded on the basis of 90:10 by the Government of India and State Government respectively.

Initially, the Government of India allotted one District for implementation of NREGA in the State. Accordingly, Mon District with its backward status was selected as Phase –I NREGA District for implementation of the scheme during 2005-2006. However, the actual implementation could start during 2006-07 only. Since 2008-09, all Districts in the State have been covered under NREGS through the GOI Notification.

Objective of the Scheme:

a. To provide 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in the rural areas notified by Central Government under section 3 (1) of                            the NREGA and whose adult members, by application, are willing to do unskilled manual works.

b. To create durable assets in rural areas.

c. To strengthen the livelihood resource base of rural poor and

d. Ultimately to enhance the livelihood security of the rural households.

Under the programme, the Govt. of India, through Notification have raised the unskilled wage from Rs. 118 per day per person to Rs.135/- which was further raised to Rs. 155 from the fiscal 2014-15 and . From 2015-16, the unskilled wage is fixed at Rs. 167 per day per person for the State of Nagaland. Un-skilled wages for the FY 2016-17 had been raised to Rs 172 per day per person and the unskilled wage for the FY 2017-18 is Rs. 177 per day per person and Rs.205 from financial year 2020- 21. Men and Women will be paid equal wages under the scheme. A material cost component of projects including the wages of the skilled and semi-skilled workers involved under the scheme shall not exceed 40% of the total project cost.

Unemployment Allowance condition is also a part of the scheme. A person who is registered under the scheme and who has applied for employment but is not given employment within 15 days shall be entitled to receive unemployment allowances at the rate of ¼ of the daily wage for the first 30 days and thence ½ per day beyond that. In case of failure to provide work when the funds are available, the State has to bear the cost of unemployment allowance

Funding:

The Central Government will bear the costs on the following :

1. The entire cost i.e. 100% of wages of unskilled manual workers,
2. 75 % of the cost of material and wages of skilled and semi-skilled workers.
3. 6% Administrative cost.

The State Government will bear the costs on the following items :

1. 25% of the cost of material and wages of skilled and semi-skilled workers,
2. Unemployment allowance.
3. Administrative expenses of the SEGC.

The approved Labour Budget for 2020-21 is 200 lakhs persondays and 160 lakhs persondays have been generated till date, where 684 works have been completed and 7599 are ongoing works. The State has received a total of Rs. 48382.14 Lakhs for implementation of MGNREGA as Central Share. During the COVID 19 Pandemic, the Department issued PPE Kit, N95 Masks and Hand Sanitizers to all the VDBs, Blocks and Districts under the Programme from Administrative cost.