"A Surgical Strike on Employment Guarantee"

Jean Drèze on the Modi government's new rural employment bill

- HIRAL TRIVEDI

“Harr haath ko kaam do, kaam ka pura daam do”—Work to every hand, and a fair wage for the work. This was one of the prominent slogans of the people’s movement for the right to work, which eventually led to the enactment of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. The act offered a minimum of a hundred days of employment to every rural household, and centred the building of public assets such as roads and waterworks. Hailed as one of the most important social-welfare legislations enacted by the United Progressive Alliance government, the act emerged from decades of activism and struggle. The MGNREGA affirmed economic dignity as a fundamental right. It aimed to hold the state accountable for providing dignified livelihood to its people, offering improved bargaining power to some of India’s workers, famously drawing rural women into paid employment in large numbers. Over the years, the MGNREGA drew criticism from various quarters for implementation failures, especially delayed and low wages, corruption and administrative mismanagement.

In late 2025, the Narendra Modi government introduced a bill named Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VBGRAMG, Bill, 2025, to replace the MGNREGA. The new bill and the haste with which it was passed have been heavily criticised and opposed by many workers, scholars, activists and opposition parties, who have said that it threatens to leave rural labour vulnerable and the state unaccountable.

The economist, activist and writer Jean Drèze is one of the outspoken critics of the new bill. Drèze made contributions to the first draft of the NREGA. In conversation with Hiral Trivedi, an intern at The Caravan, he reflected on the history and legacy of the MGNREGA. He unpacked how the VBGRAMG Act defeats the idea of an employment guarantee, what it means for rural labour, and more.