Person-Day as an Employment Measure

A person-day is one person being employed for one working day. Thus, it measures the total volume of employment generated by combining the number of workers with the number of days worked; it does not count distinct workers or households.

How it is calculated

Person-days are obtained by adding the days worked by all participating workers during a specified period. For example, if 10 persons each work for 5 days, the programme generates 50 person-days of employment.

• One person working for one day generates one person-day.
• Five persons working for two days generate 10 person-days.
• The unit can be aggregated across works, villages, districts, social groups or financial years.

Meaning under MGNREGA

Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, employment is provided to adult members of a rural household who volunteer for unskilled manual work. Attendance recorded through prescribed programme records forms the basis for counting employment generated.

• The guarantee under Section 3 is for at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to each eligible rural household, not separately to every worker.
• If two adult members of one household work for 20 days each, they generate 40 person-days, while using 40 days of that household's employment entitlement.

What the measure shows and misses

Person-days indicate the quantity of employment generated and permit comparison across places and periods. However, the same total may represent many workers employed briefly or fewer workers employed for longer periods.

• It does not equal the number of unique workers or beneficiary households.
• By itself, it does not show wage levels, timely payment, work quality or whether households received the full statutory entitlement.