SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir generated 256.67 lakh persondays under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the financial year 2025-26 up to December 11, 2025, even as the Union Territory received Rs 1,076.95 crore in central releases for the same period, official data tabled in Lok Sabha show.
The latest figures, published as part of a wider state and union territory breakdown of funds released and persondays generated under MGNREGS, show a mixed picture for Jammu and Kashmir. The release of Rs 1,076.95 crore in 2025-26 follows Rs 1,151.20 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 1,152.32 crore in 2020-21, indicating substantial year-to-year variability in central transfers recorded for the Union Territory (Annexure I, page 4).
Measured in workdays, the Union Territory’s recent output has also fluctuated. Persondays peaked at 409.38 lakh in 2024-25 but fell to 256.67 lakh as on December 11, 2025, according to the state-wise persondays table. That fall of around 37 per cent year on year in persondays generated — if sustained to year end — would signal a significant easing of demand for guaranteed rural work or changes in beneficiaries’ ability or willingness to avail themselves of the scheme.
These local shifts sit within a national backdrop of declining persondays in 2025-26 so far: total persondays generated across India were recorded at 16,603.14 lakh up to 11 December 2025, well below earlier years. At the same time, central releases for the MGNREGS in 2025-26 amounted to Rs 71,044.40 crore as on the same date, showing that funds continue to flow even as measured employment under the scheme contracts in many States.
Government sources tabled in Parliament stress that such year-to-year variation can reflect changing demand for work — which itself is influenced by seasonal labour markets, the availability of private employment, timely monsoons, migration and the operational choices of State and local functionaries responsible for work allocation. The Ministry also pointed to independent evaluation work by the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office of NITI Aayog, which acknowledged that MGNREGS has played a role in livelihood security and asset creation, even while outcomes vary regionally.
A closer look at Jammu and Kashmir’s history in the data suggests deeper volatility rather than steady decline. Between 2010 and 2014, persondays rose sharply in the Union Territory, while the last five years show alternating rises and falls in both releases and persondays.
