Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025
Indian legislation enacted in December 2025 that repeals MGNREGA, raises the guaranteed rural employment entitlement from 100 to 125 days a year, and moves cost-sharing between the central and state governments to a 60:40 model.
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- Established
- 2025-12-21
- Location
- New Delhi, India (Parliament of India)
- Country
- India
- Short name
- VB-G RAM G Act, 2025
- Introduced
- 16 December 2025, in the Lok Sabha
- Passed by Parliament
- 18 December 2025 (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha)
- Presidential assent
- 21 December 2025
- Replaces
- The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA)
- Guaranteed workdays
- Raised from 100 to 125 days per rural household per year
- Central-state cost sharing
- 60:40 (Centre:State) for most states; 90:10 for north-eastern and Himalayan states; fully centrally funded for Union Territories
- Scheduled commencement
- 1 July 2026, nationwide, per government statements
Overview
The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 — widely referred to by its abbreviation, “VB-G RAM G” — is Indian legislation that repeals and replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), the two-decade-old law guaranteeing 100 days of paid rural employment per household per year. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 December 2025 and passed by both houses of Parliament on 18 December 2025, before receiving presidential assent from President Droupadi Murmu on 21 December 2025 (PRS Legislative Research; Press Information Bureau).
The new Act raises the statutory employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days per rural household per year, and restructures how the scheme is funded: rather than the funding arrangement under MGNREGA, the new law establishes it as a centrally sponsored scheme with a 60:40 central-to-state cost-sharing ratio for most states, a more generous 90:10 ratio for north-eastern and Himalayan states, and full central funding for Union Territories (PRS Legislative Research). The government has stated the new Act is scheduled to take effect nationwide, with MGNREGA repealed, on 1 July 2026 (Press Information Bureau).
Passage and parliamentary conflict
The Bill’s passage was contentious. Deccan Herald, a national Indian newspaper, reported that the Lok Sabha passed the Bill “amid ruckus” on 18 December 2025, with opposition MPs tearing up copies of the legislation on the floor of the House (Deccan Herald). Much of the opposition’s public criticism centred on the renaming of the scheme away from its association with Mahatma Gandhi.
Independent criticism of the Act’s structure
Beyond the immediate parliamentary conflict, the new Act has drawn substantive policy criticism. In an interview published on the London School of Economics’ South Asia research blog in January 2026, economist Jean Drèze — widely credited as one of the architects of the original MGNREGA — argued that the new law converts what had been a legally enforceable employment guarantee into a more discretionary scheme. Drèze pointed to a provision he characterised as a “switch-off clause,” which he said lets the central government decide where the guarantee applies, and argued that the 60:40 central-state cost-sharing ratio functions as a funding ceiling that could particularly burden poorer states required to cover costs beyond their normative central allocation (South Asia @ LSE).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not independently verify the bare statutory text of the Act’s provisions (including the specific “switch-off clause” language Jean Drèze describes), relying instead on secondary reporting and analysis for those characterisations. It also does not confirm whether the Act’s scheduled 1 July 2026 nationwide commencement occurred as planned, since that date lies after this profile’s research was conducted. A Hindu opinion piece reportedly critical of the Act could not be independently located and read in full, so its specific arguments are not represented here.
Timeline
- 2025-12-16
- The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 is introduced in the Lok Sabha.
- 2025-12-18
- The Bill is passed by both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Opposition members protest during the Lok Sabha debate; press coverage describes MPs tearing up copies of the Bill amid "ruckus" on the floor.
- 2025-12-21
- President Droupadi Murmu gives assent to the Bill, and it becomes the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025.
- 2026-01-19
- Economist Jean Drèze, a principal architect of MGNREGA, publicly criticises the new Act in an interview published on an LSE research blog, arguing it converts a legal employment guarantee into a discretionary, centrally-gated scheme.
- 2026-07-01
- Scheduled nationwide commencement date on which MGNREGA is repealed and the new Act takes effect, per government statements at passage.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- The full text of Section 5(1), described in the LSE blog interview as a "switch-off clause" letting the Centre decide where the guarantee applies, was not independently verified against the bare statutory text by this profile — it is reported here as Jean Drèze's characterisation.
- Whether the 1 July 2026 nationwide commencement actually took place as scheduled has not been verified, since that date falls after this profile's research was conducted.
- The precise wording and full context of opposition MPs' protest during the Lok Sabha debate (beyond that copies of the Bill were torn up) could not be confirmed because the Deccan Herald article's full body text was not retrievable.
Sources
5 sources (1 tier 1, 2 tier 2, 2 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
PRS Legislative Research's bill-tracking page and the Press Information Bureau's press releases on passage and presidential assent were fetched and read in full; PIB is the Indian government's own communications arm and is treated here as first-party. Deccan Herald, a national Indian newspaper independent of government, was fetched for its reporting on opposition conduct during passage, though only its headline and article metadata were retrievable, not the full body text. A South Asia @ LSE blog post carrying an interview with economist Jean Drèze — independent of government and of the bill's drafters — was fetched and read in full for critical analysis. A The Hindu opinion piece said to criticise the Act ("driven employment guarantee into the ditch") could not be independently fetched and read in full (only a promotional social-media post referencing it was found), so it is not cited here.
- The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) VB – G RAM G Bill, 2025 Supports: Introduction and passage dates, the shift from 100 to 125 guaranteed workdays, the MGNREGA replacement, and the 60:40 / 90:10 cost-sharing structure.
- Lok Sabha passes VB-G RAM G Bill amid opposition protests Supports: That opposition MPs staged protests and tore up copies of the Bill during the Lok Sabha debate on 18 December 2025.
- India: Repealing the Employment Guarantee Act Supports: Independent critical analysis, via an interview with economist Jean Drèze, of the Act's shift from a legal employment guarantee to a more discretionary, centrally-gated scheme and its funding structure.
- Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), 2025 Supports: The scheduled 1 July 2026 nationwide commencement date, budget allocation figures, and detailed provisions such as wage-payment timelines and administrative expenditure limits.
- President gives assent to Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G) Bill, 2025 Supports: The 21 December 2025 presidential assent date.
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