Rural Labour Distress Index
Households demanding work under MGNREGA in the reference month, indexed against the trailing five-year mean for the same calendar month.
Source. Ministry of Rural Development — MGNREGA MIS — R2 Demand, Allocation and Muster Roll.
Scaling. based to 100 = trailing 5-year mean for the same calendar month.
Who hedges this. Microfinance institutions and rural NBFCs, whose default rates track rural distress directly; tractor and two-wheeler financiers; FMCG firms with rural distribution.
Methodology note. Households demanding work is used in preference to person-days generated, because person-days are partly supply-constrained by budget allocation while demand is the cleaner distress signal.