A flagship programme of the UPA government, the NREGS was announced in 2005. It was introduced in 200 of the country’s most backward districts in 2006 and was expanded to cover all 615 rural districts across India in 2008. Today, NREGS is the largest work guarantee programme in the world. This scheme brief examines some of the challenges the scheme faces and also summarises evidence regarding progress towards meeting the scheme’s stated objectives.