The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 is a scheme that provides legal guarantee of a hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to adult members of a rural household who demand employment and are willing to do unskilled manual work. The main features of the NREGA 2005 are:

• 100 days of assured employment: The Act provides 100 days of assured employment every year to every rural household across India.

• Unemployment allowance: If any applicant is not provided with employment opportunities, he/she is entitled to a specified, daily unemployment allowance.

• Reservation for women: One-third of all the job opportunities are reserved for women.

• Works under the scheme: The various works which were included under this scheme were water conservation and harvesting infrastructure, drought proofing, the building of irrigation canals, land development, agriculture-related works, etc. .

• Strengthening livelihood security: The main objective of the NREGA 2005 was the enhancement of life security for people of rural households by providing guaranteed employment for one hundred days to the people willing to do unskilled manual labor.

• Right to register: Every rural household has the right to register under NREGA, and job cards are issued to every household registered under NREGA within 15 days from the date of receipt of application for the job card registration.

• Shelf of works: The village community has the right to choose works under 8 permissible categories of works, and the works proposed by the village community cannot be altered by anyone unless they are not in conformity with the guidelines of NREGA.

• Beneficiaries: 1/3 beneficiaries are women, and preference is given to SC/ST households and other vulnerable sections of society.

The NREGA 2005 aims to enhance the livelihood security of the people in the rural areas by generating wage employment through works that develop the infrastructure base of that area.