MGNREGA Job Card: How to Apply for 100 Days of Guaranteed Work

MGNREGA — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — guarantees up to 100 days of paid unskilled manual work per year to any rural household willing to do it, with no income limit or caste restriction. The Job Card is your household's registration under the scheme, and without one you can't formally demand work. For the full details and the official link, see our MGNREGA Job Card service page.

Who's actually eligible

Any adult (18 or older) living in a rural area, willing to do unskilled manual labour, can apply — regardless of income or caste. The guarantee is per household, not per person: one adult member getting up to 100 days of work counts toward the household's entitlement for the year.

Documents you'll need

• Aadhaar card
• Address proof
• Passport-size photographs of the adult household members applying

Step-by-step: getting your Job Card

1. Apply at your local Gram Panchayat office, or online at nrega.nic.in under Job Card services.
2. List every adult household member willing to work, with their details and photographs.
3. Attach Aadhaar and address proof for the household.
4. The Gram Panchayat verifies your application — a Job Card is statutorily required to be issued within 15 days.
5. Once you have the Job Card, submit a written demand for work to your Gram Panchayat — the card alone doesn't automatically allot work.

The step people skip

Getting the Job Card is only half the process. MGNREGA work isn't automatically assigned — your household has to actively submit a written demand for work to the Gram Panchayat. Households that get a Job Card and then wait for work to show up often end up not using their entitlement at all in a given year.