🗞️ Why in News The historic MGNREGA has been fully repealed (enacted December 19, 2025) and replaced by the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, shifting India’s rural employment safety net from a universal, demand-driven right to a supply-constrained, centrally capped scheme.
MGNREGA Background (2005)
- World’s largest social security programme
- Guaranteed 100 days wage employment annually; rights-based, demand-driven
- Outcomes: Rural employment increase from 21 million to 55 million person-days; 69% households avoided hunger; 57% migration reduction
- Average employment was only 46-50 days — far below the 100-day limit
VB-G RAM G Act — Key Changes
- Guaranteed days: 100 → 125 per household
- Four work themes: water security, infrastructure, livelihoods, climate resilience
- Introduces “Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans” aggregated into a National Stack
Structural Shifts
| Feature | MGNREGA | VB-G RAM G |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Demand-driven, rights-based | Supply-constrained, centrally capped |
| Cost sharing | 90:10 (Centre:State) | 60:40 (Centre:State) |
| Agricultural season | No restriction | 60-day “switch-off clause” during peak sowing/harvesting |
| State autonomy | States could expand | Sections 4(6) & 22(5) restrict state expansion |
| Additional state costs | Minimal | ~₹31,000 crore additional burden nationally; UP alone: ₹4,230 crore |
Critical Evaluation
- Fiscal devastation for states: States bear 100% of costs if they exceed Centre’s “normative allocation”
- Loss of labour rights: Switch-off clause strips poorest workers of alternative employment, forcing acceptance of suppressed wages from large landowners
- Skewed distribution problem: Tamil Nadu and Kerala (1% of poor) absorbed 20% of MGNREGA funds; Bihar and UP (45% of poor) got only 17%
- Way Forward: Address administrative capacity bottlenecks in poorer states; incorporate modern rural jobs (care economy, village libraries); integrate with groundwater recharge structures (Atal Bhujal Yojana)
UPSC Angle
- GS2: Welfare schemes, fiscal federalism, Centre-State relations, right to work
- GS3: Employment, poverty alleviation, rural development