AHMEDABAD: Workers operating under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in Gujarat are facing a difficult situation as many of them have not been paid for up to six months. Pressed to find alternative sources to meet their daily expenses, they have warned of a statewide agitation.
The situation has become particularly grim in regions like Saurashtra, where Una and Girgadha towns have emerged as worst-hit pockets.
Raising the alarm, Rakesh Kumar, president of the All Gujarat MGNREGA Employees Union, has said this is no ordinary delay. “Despite working continuously for months, MGNREGA workers and employees across Gujarat have not been paid for five to six months. This is not a minor delay. It reflects serious lapses in administrative functioning and fund management at the level of the state government,” he said.
And as payments stall, consequences are being felt by workers and their families, given that MGNREGA is considered a lifeline scheme for the countryside. “The financial burden on workers’ families has reached a breaking point. People are borrowing just to survive and finding it difficult to arrange for basic needs, especially in rural areas,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Rural Development, Gujarat has 98.84 lakh workers registered under the MGNREGA scheme, out of which 20.69 lakh are active workers. Any delay in the distribution of wages disproportionately affects Scheduled Tribe workers, as they form 45.7% of all active workers in the state. The Centre says that in 2025–26, it released around `827 crore for the wages of MGNREGA workers.
Union members say that in villages across Saurashtra, daily wage earners are turning to loans, cutting down on essentials, and struggling to keep households afloat. The longer the delay persists, the deeper the economic wounds will grow, they argue.
The union has decided to escalate the matter now. It has demanded immediate clearance of pending wages and called for an accountable payment mechanism to prevent recurrence of such large gaps in wage distribution. “If immediate steps are not taken, we will be left with no option but to launch a statewide agitation,” the union cautioned, signaling that the issue could soon transform into a political flashpoint.