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The NREGS typically provide unskilled manual workers with short term employment on public works such as irrigation infrastructure, deforestation, soil conservation and road construction. The rationale for workfare programme rests on some basic considerations. The programmes provide income transfers to poor households during slack agricultural seasons or years. In countries with high unemployment rates, transfer benefits from workfare programmes can prevent poverty from worsening, especially during lean periods. Durable asset programmes may create the potential to generate a second round of employment benefits as necessary infrastructure is developed. The need to evolve a mechanism to supplement existing livelihood sources in rural areas was recognized early during development planning in India. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme 2005 referred as MNREGS was enacted on 25th August, 2005 and it came into force on 2nd February 2006. It marked a paradigm shift from the previous wage employment programmes with its rights-based approach that makes the Government legally accountable for providing employment to those who demand it. The scheme aims at �Enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.�