Recalibrating MGNREGA

The VB-GRAM G Actresponds to these structural problems by reshapinghow rural employmentis guaranteed, planned, andfinanced. The move to norm-based budgeting replaces an open-ended, reactiveregime with one thatties allocations to execution capacity and observed demand, reducing the mismatch between promises and delivery. Far from signallingwithdrawal, funding levels remain substantial, and thestatutorywage-employment guarantee has been expanded from 100 to 125 days per rural household per year as a standard entitlementrather than an exceptional ceiling

- GOURAV VALLABH

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-GRAM G), which replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), received the President's assent on Sunday, 21 December, marking the formal transition to a new rural employment framework. The allegation that these changes amount to the "dismantling" of MGNREGA stems from an unwillingness to distinguish sentiment from performance. Welfare laws do not enjoy moral immunity because of their vintage or their acronym; they must be assessed by whether they deliver what they promise, at scale, in the conditions that actually obtain rather than those that policymakers nostalgically invoke.

The performance and governance gaps in MGNREGA must be studied. The programme's most basic assurance of guaranteed employment had steadily drifted from its statutory intent. Data from the Ministry of Rural Development show that in FY 2024-25 only about 7-8 per cent of registered households completed the full 100 days of work, while average employment per household remained under 50 days, virtually flat across phases of stress, recovery, and growth. This was not a function of tight budgets as annual allocations had crossed Rs 1 lakh crore in recent years, but of design and delivery failures, where a legal entitlement repeatedly failed to become lived access for most beneficiaries.