Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was
notified on September 7, 2005 and came into force from February 2, 2006.
It is the world's biggest employment guarantee programme and aims at
enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the
country by providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a
financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do
unskilled manual work. Its primary objective is to augment wage
employment and strengthen natural resource management. The act was
notified in 200 districts in the first phase with effect from February
2, 2006 and then extended to 130 more districts in the financial year
2007-08 (113 districts were notified with effect from April 1 2007, and
17 districts in UP were notified with effect from May 15 2007). The
remaining districts have been notified under the MGNREGA with effect
from April 1, 2008. Thus MGNREGA covers the entire country with the
exception of districts that have a hundred percent urban population.