By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The Union Government of India is set to introduce Viksit Bharat – Guarantee For Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill (VB-G RAM G) in the Lok Sabha, which will mark the end of the current Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 under which demand driven MGNREGA Scheme is being kept alive, if we are to believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own words. The Demand driven MGNREGA Scheme framework will be dismantled and a new “supply driven scheme” will be introduce under the new law.
On February 27, 2015, PM Modi has made a statement on his own in the Parliament of India while replying to the discussion on motion of thanks to the President’s address, “I keep hearing talk that the government is planning to scrape MGNREGA, or already has. I know that you doubt my experience in many areas but I am sure you will admit that I have political acumen. My political acumen tells me that MGNREGA is a living monument of your failure.”
Truly, he kept the MGNREGA scheme only alive, and never allowed it to be implemented as it was desired. Year after year its budgets were curtailed, and implementation was made difficult by introducing several technological and other procedural methods into it, purportedly to check corruption in the scheme. As we see now MGNREGA scheme is being very badly implemented, as if government was committed to reduce the scheme as Congress failure, since it was brought by the Union Government led by Congress.
The Scheme was being sabotaged by the Union Government, alleged the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Rajya Sabha on 10 months ago on March 18, 2025. She was accusing PM Modi led government during Zero Hour of systematically undermining MGNREGA scheme.
MGNREGA scheme was the flagship poverty alleviation programme introduced ty the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the late former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 2, 2006, and the Act was passed in September 2005. MGNREGA budget allocation in 2006-07 was Rs 11,300 crore which rose to Rs 33,000 crore in 2013-14. At current prices, the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006-07 was Rs37.9 lakh crore, and in 2013-14 it was Rs 113.55 lakh crore. Therefore, percentage of allocation in the MGNREGA Scheme was around 0.29 for both the year.
What happened later to the scheme under PM Modi? The MGNREGA Scheme was allocated Rs 86,000 crore for 2024-25, which remains stagnant in at Rs 86,000 crore in 2025-26. The GDP for the year 2025-26 has been estimated on current price at Rs 3,56,97,923 as against revised estimate for the year 2024-25 at Rs 3,24,11,406 crore. Thus, MGNREGA Scheme allocation for 2024-25 as percentage of GDP was 0.26, and for 2025-26 it is 0.24.
The data speaks for itself, a Sonia Gandhi had rightly said that the budget allocation remains stagnant at Rs 86,000 crore – a 10 year low as percentage of GDP, despite the scheme being a “crucial safety net for millions of rural poor” adding that “it is deeply concerning that the present BJP government has systematically undermined the scheme.”When adjusted for inflation, the Union Budget allocation has effectively declined by Rs 4000 crore for the year 2025-26, Sonia Gandhi pointed out adding “Moreover, estimates suggest that nearly 20 per cent of the allocated funds will be used to clear pending dues for previous years.”Sonia Gandhi had also pointed out that in 2024-25 MGNREGA workers got on an average 44.62 days of work at the notified rate of Rs 279 per day. Sonia Gandhi had then demanded a wage of at least Rs 400 per day and 150 days of work in place of the legally promised 100 days a year. MGNREGA workers have been demanding work of 200 days in a year.
Under the MGNREGA government was supposed to give work to the rural jobless on demand, a framework that is being dismantled under the new VB-G RAM G Bill, which will introduce a new supply driven scheme framework. What made the PM to change his mind and why he is going to replace MGNREGA? It is politics, nothing else, to have a “Congress Mukt Bharat”, his cherished dream. Obviously it has little to do with rural labours.
The proposals in the VB-G RAM G Bill, shows it clearly. Under the new supply driven framework, allocations will be capped within a fixed budget which the Centre will determine. Moreover, employment will be provided only in rural areas notified by the Centre. It reminds us the political rivalry of the West Bengal Government and the Centre, which led to non-implementation of MGNREGA in the state. Centre had stopped sending funds to the state. Courts had to intervene in the matter leading to significant legal rulings by both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court of India.
In June 2025, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Centre to resume the scheme in West Bengal from August 1, 2025. The Union government appealed the High Court’s decision to the Supreme Court. In October 2025, the Supreme Court dismissed the Centre’s plea, upholding the Calcutta High Court’s order and clearing the way for the scheme to resume. Now the new bill empowers the Centre to notify where the new scheme will be implemented, jut to bypass the judicial scrutiny. It also mean the universal implementation of the MGNREGA in entire rural areas across the country will be limited to only certain areas where centre will chose to implement.
The VB-G RAM G Bill increased the legally promised 100 days to 125 days. It is too little, which is not enough for any worker to feed their family for whole year, even if they are actually allow the promised workdays. Let us recall that last year in 2024-25, MGNREGA workers were given only 44.62 days work on an average, a dismal performance of the Modi government. Given this track record, it is highly doubtful that Modi government will give 125 days of promised work.
Sabotaging a scheme has numerous shades. Consider this one. States are already fund starved. Currently, under the MGNREGA, in practice Centre and States share in funding this scheme is 90:10 per cent. However, under the provision, Centre is responsible for 100 per cent of the labour wages and 75 per cent of the material costs. The rest of the expenditure is to be shared by the states. However, under the VB-G RAM G Bill, share of states is proposed to be significantly increased from 10 per cent to 40 per cent. It means Modi government is considerably shifting its financial responsibility on states by reducing its share from 90 per cent to just 60 per cent.
For North-East India, and other Himalayan States and UTs, such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir, the VB-G RAM G Bill says that Centre and States shares in funding will be 90:10 per cent.
Under the VB-G RAM G Bill, Centre will have power to pause the scheme during peak agricultural season purportedly to “facilitate availability of labour”. It means rural labour will get work on the mercy of the government to a place where jobs will be otherwise available in other sectors of the economy. It would amount to driving the labourers from one place to another, which amounts to slave like treatment.
The technological interventions in the MGNREGA Scheme, such as mobile app-base attendance system, geotagging, and Aadhaar based payment system, which has been locking many labour out of work, will now be codified into law, though the digital framework for the entire workforce is not ready. Government is also bringing digital framework under Shram Shakti Niti 2025, the India’s Employment Policy for 2025.It will further digitally lock out rural labour from work.
On December 15, 2025, the copy of the VB-G RAM G Bill was circulated among members of the Parliament of India, which said it a legislation to “establish a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047. MGNREGA Sangharsh Morcha has demanded immediate withdrawal of the Bill alleging that the new bill rolls back the guarantee of job for rural workers. (IPA Service)
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