Why in the News?
The Parliament enacted Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-G RAM G) which seeks to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005.
Core Objectives of the Act
- Enhanced Statutory Wage Employment Guarantee: Providing 125 days of guaranteed wage employment to rural households, aligning livelihood security with the Viksit Bharat @2047 vision.
- Creation of Rural Infrastructure Stack: Use of public works to build water, livelihood, and climate-resilient infrastructure through convergence and saturation.
- Agriculture - Labour Balance: To avoid labour shortages in farming during peak seasons while retaining wage-employment support.
- Convergent and Integrated Planning: Promoting Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans linked with PM Gati Shakti for coordinated, multi-level planning.
- Digital and Accountable Governance: Strengthening transparency and efficiency through biometrics, GIS monitoring, real-time dashboards and AI-enabled oversight.
Key Statutory Provisions
- Integration into Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack (VB-NRIS): Aggregates all works into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack prioritising water security, rural infrastructure, livelihoods and climate resilience.
- Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans (VGPP) based planning: Ensures Gram Panchayat–led planning through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans integrated with PM Gati Shakti and national spatial systems.
- Securing peak agricultural seasons: Allows States to pause works for up to 60 days during sowing and harvesting to ensure farm labour availability.
- Centrally Sponsored Scheme: Programme to be implemented as a CSS with shared responsibilities between the Centre and States.
- Normative Allocation: Provides objective, rule-based fund allocation to States with excess expenditure borne by States and equitable intra-State distribution mandated.
- Special relaxations: Empowers the Centre to grant temporary relaxations during natural calamities or extraordinary situations.
- Transparency and accountability: Strengthens oversight through biometrics, GIS-based planning, real-time monitoring, public disclosures and social audits.
- Institutional Oversight: Establishes Central and State Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Councils and steering committees for monitoring and policy guidance.
- Wage rate specification: Authorises the Centre to notify wage rates.
- State schemes within six months: Mandates States to notify their implementation schemes within six months of commencement of the Act.
- Unemployment allowance: Obliges States to pay unemployment allowance if work is not provided on time, preserving minimum legal guarantees for labour.
Comparison between MGNREGA and VB-G RAM G
Aspect | MGNREGA | Viksit Bharat–G RAM G |
|---|---|---|
Wage employment guarantee | 100 days of wage employment per rural household. | 125 days of wage employment per rural household. |
Nature of works | Multiple and scattered categories of works with limited strategic focus. | 4 clearly defined priority areas focusing on water security, rural infrastructure, livelihoods and climate resilience. |
Funding responsibility | Centre bears unskilled wage costs, States bear unemployment allowance. | State cost-sharing for wages: 60:40 for most States, 90:10 for certain special-category regions. |
Statutory pause provision | No explicit statutory "pause window". | States can notify up to 60 days in a financial year when work will not be executed. |
Funding approach | Demand-based funding with unpredictable allocations. | Normative funding ensuring predictable budgeting while protecting the employment guarantee. |
Planning framework | Gram Panchayat planning is central. | Integrates institutionalised convergence and infrastructure planning. |
Key concerns with the Act
- Limited Parliamentary and Public Scrutiny: The Bill was passed hurriedly with limited debate and without wide public consultation raising concerns over democratic legitimacy.
- Dilution of Rights-based Framework: The Act weakens the demand-driven, rights-based character of MGNREGA by shifting towards a supply-driven and capped allocation model undermining the statutory right to work.
- Erosion of Federalism: Decision-making powers, including normative fund allocation and scheme operationalisation are concentrated with the Union government reducing States to implementing agencies.
- Impact on Fiscal Federalism: Cost-sharing (60:40) and the requirement for States to bear excess expenditure strain State finances, undermining fiscal autonomy.
- Weakening of Transparency and Public Scrutiny: The Act lacks clarity on the scope, granularity, and enforceability of public disclosures.
- Over-Reliance on Digital Systems: Mandatory use of biometric attendance, GPS monitoring, and digital dashboards may lead to denial of work and wages due to technical failures or exclusions.
- Risk from Data Protection Regime: The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 creates uncertainty over what information will remain in the public domain, potentially restricting access to programme data.
Conclusion
A credible path forward for the VB-G RAM G Act lies not merely in its statutory design but in the spirit of its implementation. If accompanied by robust parliamentary oversight, genuine consultation with States and Panchayats, strong social audit mechanisms, and clear safeguards against digital exclusion, the Act can evolve into a balanced instrument that combines livelihood security with long-term rural asset creation.
Aligning technological innovation with constitutional principles of federalism, transparency, and the right to work will be essential for ensuring that the transition from MGNREGA strengthens the foundations of inclusive rural development envisioned under Viksit Bharat @2047.
