The point about NREGA (or MGNREGA) is this. Since states are bound to offer employment to anyone who demands it, and wages have been raised every year due to high inflation, the fall in demand for MREGA employment is surprising – unless one were to conclude that the scheme was allowed to atrophy and poor implementation was deterring more people coming forward for jobs even though they needed it.
This is the paradox, since actual rural wage growth rates were falling between 2011 and 2014 at a time when NREGA wages actually went up consistently due to inflation indexation. Between early 2011 and April 2014, NREGA wages went up by 30 percent from a range of Rs 117-181 to a range of Rs 153-236 per day for various states.