MGNREGA replacing law sets stage for political skirmishes

The rural jobscape is set to change in the future, and more politically contentious, as 2025 became the year when the two-decade-old MGNREGA, brought during the first UPA government, was replaced by the Viksit BharatGuarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Act, or VB-G RAM G, as the government dubbed it.

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The law met with protests from Opposition parties in Parliament, as well as activists outside it, who argued that it alters the rights-based approach in the earlier Act.

Removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the original Act also met with vociferous denunciation by the Opposition.

Indefence, Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed critics and dismissed their objections as “misinformation” against the VB-G RAM G Act, which, he said, is a step ahead of MGNREGA.

According to the Rural Development Ministry, the VB-G RAM G Act is aimed at establishing a “future-ready, convergence-driven, saturation-oriented rural development architecture.”

The government argued that it aims to transform rural employment from a standalone welfare intervention into an integrated instrument of development.