The Union Government has circulated a draft bill among Lok Sabha members to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of 2005 and introduce a new framework for rural wage employment under the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025. The proposed legislation, likely to be tabled during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament ending December 19, aims to align rural development with the Viksit Bharat @2047 vision by guaranteeing 125 days of unskilled manual work annually to volunteering rural households, up from the current 100 days.

Key features include a shift from MGNREGA's fully Centre-funded wage structure to cost-sharing with states, potentially increasing financial responsibility for the latter. The bill introduces normative state-wise allocations determined by the Centre based on prescribed parameters, moving away from the demand-driven model. It also permits pausing the program during peak agricultural seasons to ensure labor availability for farming and codifies technological tools like Aadhaar-based payments and geotagging.

The new scheme emphasizes thematic focus areas such as water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood enhancement, and mitigation of extreme weather events, promoting convergence and saturation for resilient rural growth. Shortened to "G-Ram-G," it seeks to foster empowerment through public works contributing to a national rural infrastructure stack.

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Critics, including rural development experts, argue the changes dismantle MGNREGA's core entitlements as a legal right to work, converting it into an allocation-based program with reduced beneficiary influence and impractical burdens on states. They view the pause clause and funding shifts as diluting the scheme's foundational demand-driven nature.

The bill's circulation follows Cabinet clearance and reflects the government's push for structural reforms in flagship welfare programs. If enacted, it would mark a significant overhaul of India's largest rural employment initiative, originally enacted in 2005 as a cornerstone safety net.

As Parliament prepares for introduction, the proposal is expected to spark intense debate on balancing enhanced guarantees with fiscal decentralization and operational efficiency in rural job assurance.

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