Representative image of MGNREGA workers.
Credit: DH Photo
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved renaming the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Yojana.
The government will bring the Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Bill for MGNREGA, which will guarantee 125 days of work to the rural poor in a year. There is also a proposal to revise the minimum wage to Rs 240 per day.
The government will allocate Rs 1.51 lakh crore for the scheme, sources said.
The scheme was first introduced in 2005 as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), later renamed as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2009.
The law is a social security measure that aims to guarantee "right to employment". It provides at least 100 days of guaranteed unskilled manual labour in a year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
At present, there are 154 million people working under the scheme. Around one-third of the beneficiaries are women.