Ministry of Rural Development has launched a “Kaam Mango Abhiyaan†last week to proactively register demand in select districts of the country.
Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister for Rural Development  has written to chief ministers of the six states last week urging states to use the opportunity to’ motivate all stakeholders in realizing the benefits conferred under the Act’ and ‘create good models that can benefit large number of poor households’. He has urged Chief Ministers to personally lead this effort and extend it to all districts of these states. Chief Minister of Jharkhand  Hemant Soren has already flagged off the abhiyan recently with several MGNREGA workers and civil society representatives present.
The Ministry recognises that the decline in people demanding work under MGNREGA is not because of a lack of demand but because of a failure to capture demand effectively. This campaign therefore seeks to increase awareness around the entitlements of MGNREGA and increase participation in the programme by fulfilling the guarantee of employed against demand. For the coming month, the focus will be on six districts in the country –Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh),  Nashik (Maharashtra),  Raichur (Karnataka),  Katihar(Bihar), West Singhbum (Jharkhand) and Sundergarh (Odisha). This will present a model for a nationwide campaign that will be launched on 2nd February 2014, MGNREGA Day.