Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): the VB-G RAM G Act is a statutory overhaul of MGNREGA guaranteeing 125 days of wage employment

Background

The President of India has given assent to the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025. The resulting Act represents a comprehensive statutory overhaul of MGNREGA, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act enacted in 2005, which had guaranteed at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment each year to rural households willing to undertake unskilled manual work. The Act guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household in each financial year to such rural households whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, with an aggregated 60-day no-work period to ensure the availability of agricultural labour during peak sowing and harvesting season, so that the 125 guaranteed days fall within the remaining 305 days. The disbursement of daily wages shall be made on a weekly basis or, in any case, not later than a fortnight after the date on which such work was done. Employment creation is integrated with infrastructure development through four priority verticals: water security through water-related works, core-rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure, and special works to mitigate extreme weather events. Assets created are aggregated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, and planning is decentralised through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans spatially integrated with PM Gati Shakti. The programme shifts from a central sector scheme to a centrally sponsored framework, with a standard cost-sharing ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and states, 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan states, and 100 per cent central funding for Union Territories without legislatures. Where work is not provided, a daily unemployment allowance becomes payable after 15 days, with liability resting on the States, and the administrative expenditure ceiling rises from 6 per cent to 9 per cent, with social audits mandated at least once every six months.