India's rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA has been ranked as the world's largest public works programme, providing social security net to almost 15 per cent of the country's population, World Bank has said.

India is among the five middle-income countries running the world's largest social safety net programmes, said a World Bank Group's report 'The State of Social Safety Nets 2015'.


"The world's five largest social safety net programmes are all in middle-income countries (China, India, South Africa and Ethiopia) and reach over 526 million people," it added.

The combined spending on social safety nets in 120 developing countries amounted to about USD 329 billion between 2010 and 2014, it said.

India's Mid-day meal scheme has been classified as biggest school feeding programme benefiting 105 million beneficiaries.