GUARANTEE EXPIRES

India's rural employment guarantee law is replaced with a centrally controlled, budget-capped scheme. Is this an attack on the right to work?

- HIMANSHU NITNAWARE, NEW DELHI

A LITTLE past midnight on December 19, 2025, as the Parliament's winter session drew to a close, the Union government rushed through a piece of legislation repealing one of India's most celebrated social welfare programmes, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA). It was substituted with Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025. The government says the new law aligns with its “Viksit Bharat 2047” vision and strengthens rural income security by raising work guarantee to 125 days per household, from 100 under MGNREGA. Not everyone is convinced. The move has drawn sharp criticism from grassroots organisations and policy veterans who spent years conceptualising, implementing and defending MGNREGA, regarded as the world's largest such programme.