New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- Employment generation under the Centre's flagship rural jobs programme has slowed sharply during what is typically its busiest period of the year, with official data tabled in Parliament showing significantly fewer workdays generated than during the corresponding period last year.

An analysis of a reply tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday and a government release from July 25 last year showed that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and its successor, the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), generated 703.2 million persondays as of July 31. This is around 34% lower than the 1.07 billion persondays generated by July 21 last year, despite t...