SINCE THE BEGINNING, the National Democratic Alliance (‘NDA’) government has not shied from showing its dislike towards the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (‘MGNREGA’). In 2015, only a year after the government came to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking the Parliament mockingly, noted his government would prefer to continue MGNREGA because it "[was] a living memorial to [the United Progressive Alliance (‘UPA’) government’s] failures.” “After so many years in power,” Modi stated, as treasury benches laughed and applauded, “all you were able to deliver is for a poor man to dig ditches a few days a month.”
Brought into force in 2005, MGNREGA provided for hundred days of guaranteed employment each year to every household in rural areas. It was a demand based programme, and the Act empowered Gram Panchayats to select the work that could be undertaken under MGNREGA. This constituted an important part of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (‘GPDP’) that Gram Panchayats prepared. When the coronavirus pandemic swept the country’s economy, MGNREGA and the National Food Security Act, 2013 acted as a critical lifeline for a large population. In the last financial year alone (2024-25), MGNREGA generated 286.18 crore person-days, supporting 5.78 crores households and providing employment to 7.88 crores individuals. More than half of the beneficiaries were women (58 percent). 18 percent were from Scheduled Caste, while another 18 percent were from Scheduled Tribe communities. 4.82 lakh beneficiaries were people with disabilities.
Last week, the NDA government tabled a bill in the Parliament to repeal the MGNREGA and replace it with the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, in short VB G RAM G Bill. The proposed bill, however, is much more than a nomenclature change of what has remained a flagship programme of the Indian government. The new bill weakens the employment guarantee available to the rural poor under MGNREGA in more than one way.
A new bill for ‘Viksit Bharat’
The objective of the new bill, as stated in the Schedule 1 of the bill, is “to align the rural development framework with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047” and to “focus on empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation through public works aggregating into forming Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack”, and “to institutionalise convergence, saturation-driven planning and whole of
government delivery through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans, integrated with the PM Gati Shakti to address the varying needs of Gram Panchayats” among others.
Crucial questions emerge on the alternative possibilities that were not attempted. If the development work being undertaken under MGNREGA currently were not in alignment with the Viksit Bharat@2047 vision, the government could have simply revised the list of the work which can be taken up under MGNREGA. As for the objective to “institutionalise convergence, saturation-driven planning and whole of government delivery through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans”, it must be noted that MGNREGA works are currently also proposed and planned under the current GPDPs by gram panchayats and must be approved by the Gram Sabha.
Shifting priorities in moving away from non-agriculture employment
Another stated objective of the bill is to “facilitate adequate farm-labour availability during peak agricultural seasons, and, in view of the wage-employment guarantee for the rural workforce.” The G RAM G bill, if enacted, would give two months of mandatory break to the rural employment work under new law during the agriculture season, which would ensure adequate supply of labour for farming.
However, what has prompted the government to include this provision is not clear. By what we know, the agriculture sector is already overcrowded. The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (‘PLFS’) suggests that agriculture employs 46 percent of the total workforce of the country, even as it contributes only about 18 percent to the Gross Value Addition (‘GVA’).
In rural areas, 60 percent of the workforce is employed in the agriculture sector. As per the PLFS data, about one fourth of those involved in the sector are agriculture labour. While the policy thrust should be directed at shifting workers away from farming towards non-farm employment, the approach with the new bill is to seek the reverse.
A new burden on India’s resource strained state governments
The proposed bill also promises to provide employment for 125 days in a year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, increased from the 100 days of employment guaranteed under MGNREGA. This enhanced number of guaranteed employment days per year, however, will depend on the Union government’s allocation of budget, and will not necessarily be demand based. The Union government shall make normative allocation to each State, to be estimated based on objective parameters, as prescribed in the rules according to the proposed bill.
A critical question that arises is this: What if the Union government’s allocations according to the estimates based on objective parameters are not able to provide 125 days of guaranteed employment?
The bill mentions that expenditure in excess of the approved normative allocation shall be the responsibility of the State governments. It becomes clear, then, that if the state governments want to provide more days of work than what can be given in the normative allocation made by the Union government, they would have to spend the required funds from their own exchequer.
There are other ways in which the bill increases the financial burden of the state governments, as well. For one, it changes the sharing pattern of the budget for the new employment guarantee programme under the proposed bill. Currently 100 percent of the labour cost and 75 percent of material cost of MGNREGA is borne by the Union government. Thus, under the MGNREGA, the Union government bears almost 90 percent of the total expenditure.
In the G RAM G bill, the Union government proposes to change the sharing pattern to a 60:40 ratio. This sharing pattern will exclude the North-Eastern states, and Himalayan states and union territories (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir) for which the ratio would be 90:10. This sharing pattern will further strain the fiscal status of state governments.
Currently very few households (only about 7 percent) are able to complete 100 days of employment. The increased number of days, therefore, seems to be rhetoric at best, and surely it will be an additional fiscal burden for the state governments, if it is to be achieved.
De-centering India’s decentralised micro-planning model
The proposed bill also may alter the decentralized micro-planning done by panchayats. Though the bill mandates that the gram panchayats shall make a Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan based on the recommendations of the ward sabhas and gram sabha; the gram panchayat will be supplied muster rolls and “a list of employment opportunities available elsewhere to the residents of the Gram Panchayat”. The gram panchayat may also take up any work under the scheme from the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan as may be sanctioned by the programme officer.
The bill envisions district programme coordinator at district level and programme officers at the intermediate (block) level appointed by the state government to “assist” the district panchayat and block panchayat respectively. The programme officer will consolidate the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans made by the gram panchayats and shall be responsible for matching the demand for employment with the employment opportunities arising from works in the area under his jurisdiction.
So the bill makes it clear that the decisions regarding works to be undertaken as well as allotment of work to the persons seeking employment will be taken by a state government appointed programme officer (which will be a Block Development level official).
There are other pressing questions that emerge when it comes to the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan. So far, under the MGNREGA, gram panchayats have been making the GPDPs, which are based on the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and respective state governments’ panchayati raj department’s guidelines.
Will the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan be a new plan for employment guarantee works in addition to the GPDP?
Ideally gram panchayats should be asked to make only one annual development plan as mandated by the Constitution.
A technology-heavy bill for a technologically strained bureaucracy
The proposed bill relies heavily on technology for planning, implementation, monitoring and even the social audit of the programme. Section 24 of the Bill provides for technology enabled transparency and public accountability, including biometric authentication, geospatial planning, mobile or dashboard monitoring, weekly public disclosures and strengthened social audit mechanisms.
Our gram panchayats, elected representatives and gram panchayat staff, and more importantly the rural workers seeking work under employment guarantee schemes are generally not equipped with skills and equipment to be able to navigate through the maize of the digital ecosystem of the Union and state governments. Currently, most gram panchayats struggle to just upload their GPDP on the e-gramswaraj portal (a mandatory requirement of MGNREGA) and this is generally done by one Management Information System staff (mostly untrained) at the block panchayat office in most states.
Thus while the G RAM G Bill roots itself in an outward rhetoric of developmental progress, with its emphasis on a 125 day guarantee work plan and reliance of technology, its internal logic shows a questionable policy shift towards de-prioritising non-agriculture labour, and weakening the role of rural governance models in managing employment guarantee schemes, all the while leaving the scheme’s implementation to precarious financial planning.
Across India’s villages, ‘Jai Ram Ji’ is often used both as a greeting and a salutation to bid good bye. In many ways, the question of whether the VB G RAM G bill ushers in a new era of rural employment guarantee or completely dissolves its future is a weighty one. And it is a question that fundamentally affects how millions of rural men and, notably, women, will work, aspire and live in a changing India.