VB G RAM G Act 2025

Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB G RAM G) will replace the MGNREGA Act, 2005. Read here to learn more about it.

With the President’s assent to the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB G RAM G) Act, 2025, India has undertaken a landmark reform in its rural employment architecture.

Replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, the new law enhances the statutory employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days, deepens decentralised governance, and integrates employment generation with durable asset creation.

The Act reflects a shift from a standalone welfare approach to a developmental and empowerment-oriented framework, aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

From MGNREGA to VB G RAM G

MGNREGA, enacted in 2005, was the world’s largest rights-based employment programme, providing a legal guarantee of wage employment to rural households. While it significantly contributed to poverty reduction, income smoothing, and asset creation, several challenges emerged over time:

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• Delays in wage payments
• Fragmented asset creation
• Weak convergence with other schemes
• Rising fiscal pressures and administrative constraints

VB G RAM G builds upon MGNREGA’s rights-based foundation while addressing these structural limitations through enhanced guarantees, reformed governance, and integrated planning.

Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB G RAM G)

1. Enhanced Statutory Employment Guarantee

• The Act provides a statutory guarantee of not less than 125 days of wage employment per rural household per financial year.
• This strengthens income security, reduces seasonal distress migration, and offers greater predictability of work and earnings.
• The right to demand employment remains legally enforceable, reinforcing the constitutional commitment to social justice.

2. Balanced Support to Agriculture and Rural Labour

• States are empowered to notify an aggregated pause period of up to 60 days during peak sowing and harvesting seasons.
• This provision:
  • Prevents labour shortages in agriculture
  • Maintains the full 125-day guarantee during the remaining period
• It reflects a calibrated approach balancing farm productivity and labour welfare.

3. Timely Wage Payments and Worker Protection

• Wages must be paid weekly or within 15 days of work completion.
• Delays attract mandatory compensation, strengthening accountability and protecting workers from income uncertainty.
• This provision directly addresses one of the most persistent criticisms of MGNREGA.

4. Employment Linked with Productive Rural Assets

The Act explicitly aligns wage employment with the creation of durable, productive, and climate-resilient assets across four priority domains:

• Water security and water conservation
• Core rural infrastructure
• Livelihood-supporting infrastructure
• Works to mitigate extreme weather and climate risks

All assets are integrated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, enabling:

• Convergence of public investments
• Avoidance of duplication
• Saturation-based development outcomes

5. Decentralised Planning with National Convergence

• Planning originates from Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans (VGPPs), prepared through participatory processes and approved by Gram Sabhas.
• Panchayats retain control over:
  • Identification of works
  • Prioritisation of local needs
  • Monitoring and social audits
• Digital integration with platforms like PM Gati Shakti ensures national-level convergence without undermining local autonomy.

This model strengthens cooperative federalism and grassroots democracy.

6. Reformed Financial Architecture

• Implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with:
  • 60:40 Centre-State sharing
  • 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan States
  • 100% central funding for UTs without legislatures
• Normative, rule-based allocations improve predictability and fiscal discipline while preserving statutory entitlements to employment and unemployment allowance.

7. Strengthened Administrative Capacity

• Administrative expenditure ceiling increased from 6% to 9%.
• Enables better staffing, training, technical expertise, and field-level supervision.
• Addresses long-standing capacity constraints at the Panchayat and block levels.

8. Technology-Enabled Transparency with Social Oversight

• Use of biometric authentication, geo-tagging, and real-time dashboards enhances transparency.
• Crucially, technology is framed as an enabler, not a gatekeeper.
• Social audits by Gram Sabhas are strengthened, ensuring community oversight and inclusion.

9. Restoration of Unemployment Allowance

• The Act removes earlier dis-entitlement provisions.
• If employment is not provided within the stipulated period, the unemployment allowance becomes payable after 15 days.
• This reinforces the enforceability of the right to employment.

Significance of the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB G RAM G)

1. Advancing Inclusive Growth

• Enhances livelihood security for the rural poor
• Reduces vulnerability to shocks such as droughts, floods, and economic downturns

2. Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions

• Empowers Gram Sabhas and Panchayats as the fulcrum of planning and implementation
• Deepens participatory democracy

3. Climate Resilience and Sustainability

• Focus on water security and climate-mitigating assets aligns rural employment with environmental sustainability

4. Convergence and Efficiency

• Integrates employment generation with infrastructure creation and national development priorities
• Moves away from fragmented, scheme-based delivery

Concerns and Challenges

• Implementation capacity at the Panchayat levels may vary widely
• Normative funding must be flexible enough to respond to distress years
• Digital exclusion risks must be continuously mitigated
• Effective monitoring is required to ensure asset quality and long-term utility

Way Forward

• Continuous capacity building of Panchayats and field officials
• Robust grievance redressal and independent audits
• Flexibility in allocations during climate or economic shocks
• Strong Centre–State coordination to maintain trust in statutory guarantees

Conclusion

The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, represents a decisive evolution of India’s rural employment framework.

By expanding statutory employment to 125 days, embedding decentralised planning, strengthening accountability, and aligning employment with productive asset creation, the Act repositions rural employment as a strategic instrument of empowerment, resilience, and inclusive growth.

If implemented with integrity and sensitivity to local realities, VB G RAM G can become a cornerstone of Viksit Bharat @2047, ensuring that India’s development journey is both economically robust and socially just.