Jammu, Dec 22: The year 2025-end has brought a revolutionary Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB – G RAM G) Bill, 2025, which has the potential not just to change the rural employment landscape but also to shake up the delivery system on the ground, with hardly any scope for misappropriation of funds.
The Bill, which was given an assent by the President of India on December 21, 2025, aims at bolstering rural economy with game changers in the form of enhanced statutory employment guarantee from earlier 100 days to 125 days; data-driven planning by Gram Sabha or Panchayats in alignment with Mahatma Gandhi’s “Gram Swaraj” vision; productive and visible asset creation – enabling income diversification, resilient rural economy and above all checking misappropriation of funds. It also mandates payment of wages on a weekly basis or, in any case, within fifteen days of completion of work.
Amid voices of dissent opposing the Bill as regressive, violative of federal structure by putting financial pressure on states, one needs to focus on certain points to understand as to why it will have an edge over its predecessor i.e., Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in realising the Gandhiji’s vision actually on the ground in the ever-evolving scenario rather than just reflecting in the name of Act.
The first and foremost point is – the rural landscape of the country is not stagnant. In the past decade or so, the rural economy has undergone a sea-change, and thus a change in approach to make it resilient in alignment with the fast-evolving new challenges is imperative.
NO DILUTION OF RIGHT TO DEMAND
The new Act, contrary to critics’ contention, does not dilute the right to demand employment. On the contrary, it places a clear statutory obligation on the government to provide not less than 125 days of guaranteed wage employment to eligible rural households. The expansion of guaranteed days, together with strengthened accountability and grievance redressal mechanisms, reinforces the enforceability of this right.
UNEMPLOYMENT ALLOWANCE
Besides, the new Act removes earlier dis-entitlement provisions and restores unemployment allowance as a meaningful statutory safeguard. Where employment is not provided within the stipulated period, the unemployment allowance becomes payable after fifteen days.
VB-G RAM G VERSUS MGNREGA
Precisely, the difference between the VB-G RAM G and MGNREGA can be worked out in six main pointers.
The new Bill offers an enhanced statutory employment guarantee of 125 days of wage employment per rural household as compared to the earlier 100 days.
It has four clearly defined priority areas focussing on water scarcity, rural infrastructure, livelihoods and above all, climate resilience, which has emerged as a major global challenge as well, while in MGNREGA, there were multiple and scattered categories of works with limited strategic focus.
It spells out a pattern of state cost-sharing for wages – 60:40 for most states, 90:10 for certain special category regions, while in the case of MGNREGA, the Centre used to bear unskilled wage costs, while states would bear unemployment allowance.
In the new Bill, the states can notify up to 60 days in a financial year when work will not be executed, while in MGNREGA, there was no explicit statutory “pause window”.
VB-G RAM G focuses on normative funding, ensuring predictable budgeting while protecting the employment guarantee; MGNREGA stressed demand-based funding with unpredictable allocations.
New bill integrates institutionalised convergence and infrastructure planning, while in the case of MGNREGA, Gram Panchayat planning was central.
HOW STRUCTURAL FLAWS CREPT IN MGNREGA LIMITING ITS INCREMENTS
The MGNREGA was a flagship programme aimed at enhancing livelihood security by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment each year to rural households willing to undertake unskilled manual work. Over the years, a range of administrative and technological reforms strengthened its implementation, leading to notable improvements in participation, transparency, and digital governance.
Women’s participation rose steadily from 48 per cent to 58.15 per cent between FY 2013-14 and FY 2025-26, Aadhaar seeding expanded sharply, the Aadhaar-based payment system was widely adopted, and electronic wage payments became nearly universal.
Monitoring of works also improved, with a large expansion in geo-tagged assets and a growing share of individual assets created at the household level.
The experience under MGNREGA also highlighted the critical role played by field-level staff, who ensured continuity and scale of implementation despite working with limited administrative resources and staffing.
However, alongside these gains, deeper structural issues persisted.
Monitoring across several states revealed gaps such as work not found on the ground, expenditure not matching physical progress, use of machines in labour-intensive works, and frequent bypassing of digital attendance systems.
Over time, misappropriation accumulated, and only a small proportion of households were able to complete the full one hundred days of employment in the post pandemic period. These trends indicated that while delivery systems improved, the overall architecture of MGNREGA had reached its limits.
HOW VB-G RAM G PROMISES TO BRING INSTITUTIONAL, STRUCTURAL CHANGE
The Act, with enhanced modern statutory wage employment guarantee, seeks to advance empowerment, inclusive growth, convergence of development initiatives and saturation-based delivery, thereby strengthening the foundation for a prosperous, resilient and self-reliant rural landscape.
Anchored in the principles of empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation, the Act seeks to transform rural employment from a standalone welfare intervention into an integrated instrument of development.
BALANCED PROVISION FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LABOUR
To facilitate adequate availability of agricultural labour during peak sowing and harvesting seasons, the Act empowers States to notify an aggregated pause period aggregating to sixty days in a financial year.
The full 125-day employment guarantee remains intact, to be provided during the remaining period, ensuring a calibrated balance that supports both agricultural productivity and worker security.
TIMELY WAGE PAYMENTS
The Act mandates payment of wages on a weekly basis or, in any case, within fifteen days of completion of work. In cases of delay beyond the stipulated period, delay compensation will be payable in accordance with the provisions laid down in Schedule II, reinforcing wage security and protecting workers from delays.
EMPLOYMENT LINKED WITH PRODUCTIVE RURAL INFRA
Wage employment under the Act is explicitly aligned with the creation of durable public assets across four priority thematic domains: water security and water-related works; core rural infrastructure; livelihood-related infrastructure and works to mitigate extreme weather events.
All works are planned through a bottom-up process, and all assets created are aggregated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, ensuring convergence of public investments, avoidance of fragmentation, and outcome-based planning aimed at saturation of critical rural infrastructure, based on varying local needs.
DECENTRALISED PLANNING WITH NATIONAL CONVERGENCE
The new Bill specifies that all works originate from Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans (VGPPs), prepared at the Gram Panchayat level through participatory processes and approved by the Gram Sabha.
These plans are digitally and spatially integrated with national platforms, including PM Gati Shakti, enabling whole-of-government convergence while fully retaining decentralised decision-making.
This integrated planning framework will enable ministries and departments to plan and implement works more effectively, avoid duplication and wastage of public resources, and accelerate development through saturation-based outcomes.
REFORMED FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE
The Act is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, to be notified and operationalised by the State Governments in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
The cost-sharing pattern is 60:40 between the Centre and States, 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan States, and 100 percent central funding for Union Territories without legislatures.
Funding is provided through State-wise normative allocations based on objective parameters prescribed in the Rules, ensuring predictability, fiscal discipline, and sound planning, while fully preserving statutory entitlements to employment and unemployment allowance.
STRENGTHENED ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY
The administrative expenditure ceiling has been enhanced from 6 percent to 9 percent, enabling improved staffing, training, technical capacity and field-level support, and strengthening the ability of institutions to deliver outcomes effectively.
NORMATIVE FUNDING
The shift to normative allocations pertains to budgeting and fund-flow mechanisms and does not affect the legal entitlement to employment.
DECENTRALISATION OF PANCHAYATS
The Act does not centralise planning or execution. It vests planning, implementation and monitoring authority in Panchayats, Programme Officers and District authorities at appropriate tiers. What is integrated at the national level is visibility, coordination and convergence, not local decision-making.
INCLUSIVE TECHNOLOGY
Technology under the Act is intended as an enabling mechanism, not a barrier. The Act provides for technology-enabled transparency through biometric authentication, geo-tagging and real-time dashboards. It also strengthens social audits by Gram Sabhas, ensuring community oversight, transparency and inclusion.