<br/>The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has highlighted India's rural employment guarantee scheme, popularly known as NREGA, for its impact on reducing poverty and reversing inequality. The UN agency said this in its progress report on Millennium Development Goals. It said the scheme is known for improving livelihoods through the legal guarantee of up to 100 days of paid work per annum for landless labourers and marginal farmers, with almost half being women. <br/><br/>The report sad that the scheme—renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)—has benefited some 460 lakh households. It has taken up works that include water conservation, irrigation canals, flood control, road construction and similar work.<br/><br/>The report added that the scheme created a significant number of jobs in about 530 districts between 2006 and 2008, benefitting about 46 million households. Forty six per cent of the beneficiaries are women.<br/>