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 to the Parliament mockingly, noted that 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.
