MGNREGS to VB-G RAM G: A shift in focus for rural jobs

The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rojgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), Bill 2025, replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005.

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The bill aims to establish a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047 by providing a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work. The aim is to promote empowerment, growth, convergence, and saturation for a prosperous and resilient rural India and enable them to participate more effectively in the expanded livelihood security framework. The bill recognises that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has provided guaranteed wage employment to rural households, ensuring wage income.

There were many arguments against MGNREGS, such as why make people work for cash transfers, that it hurt agriculture due to wage increase and curtailed migration that promoted development. It was also argued that the poorer states didn’t benefit as much. There were criticisms relating to delayed payments and poor quality of asset creation. There were other operational issues: Unemployment allowance was often not paid and outcomes were poor despite the high cost of running the programme. Some experts maintained that it was wrecking the national labour market.