MGNREGA to VB-G RAM G: Understanding the Government’s Policy Choice
VB-G RAM G Act: The VB-G RAM G Act has been criticised as a rollback of employment guarantees and worker entitlements. Such criticisms, however, often conflate intent with outcome. The Act represents an attempt to correct systemic inefficiencies in previous models by shifting focus from procedural compliance to measurable rural development outcomes.
Rebuttal to Criticisms of VB-G RAM G Act:
1) Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G-RAM-G) Act is aimed at strengthening the rural employment framework by building on long-standing welfare architecture.VB-G-RAM-G prioritizes transparency, accountability, the dignity of labor, and genuine rural empowerment over symbolism.
2)The 60-day pause in the work is made mandatory to ensure the availability of the workers during peak agricultural seasons. Then, Union Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar wrote multiple letters to then Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, demanding that at least three months in a year be considered an off-season for MGNREGA. The State Government has the full power to decide these 60 days. They can switch based on their sowing/harvesting periods.
3)Then, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram wanted a certain percentage of the cost to be borne by the states. At that time Central government bearing 75% of the material cost, and rest 25% were bearing by the states. States have the primary responsibility of implementing the Rural Guarantee Schemes sponsored by the Centre. Proportionate bearing of expenditure ensures fiscal discipline. Greater financial participation by states strengthens their ownership of projects, incentivising them to plan, execute, and maintain assets more responsibly.
4)The demand-based system of work allocation was open-ended, and the government budget had an upper ceiling. Supply-based system is more planned, nuanced, and Rural works will now be planned through ‘Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans,’ consolidated at the block, district, and state levels, and merged into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure stack. The jobs will only be opened when there is a specific, pre-approved asset. States are obligated to provide at least 125 days. States may provide more than 125 days based on capacity, and if work is not provided within 15 days, allowance is payable. Workers and labourers are empowered by the Act.
5)If a worker demands employment and work is not provided within the prescribed period, then the worker shall be paid unemployment allowance. When a State goes beyond the normative allocation, it does so by its own policy choice, not because the law forces it to. Therefore, even if States carry an extra financial burden, workers’ legal entitlements remain fully protected.
6)The framework of centrally allocated work under the National Rural Infrastructure Stack would ensure a targeted allocation of work in a more systematic, data-backed manner, thereby reducing the scope of arbitrariness and localised corruption in work allocation. This would ensure a more transparent, targeted, and regulated implementation of the employment scheme, preventing fraud and corruption.
7)Rural poverty declining from 25.7% in 2011-12 to 4.86% in 2023-24, rural employment needed to be restructured. And also, the job cards of many beneficiaries become ‘inactive’ or dormant due to death, migration, reducing the utility of the said job cards. Stricter biometric attendance norms and integration of the India-Stack prevent such ‘ghost beneficiaries’ from being used to siphon funds.
8)The Act only renames the framework; it does not change the employment guarantee, worker entitlements, grievance redressal, or safeguards. Removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name “weakens moral authority” reflects a subjective opinion, not a verifiable fact.
9)Manual verification was laced with fraud and corruption, leading to massive leakages and exclusion of beneficiaries. Additionally, funds intended for beneficiaries used to ‘disappear’ due to multiple grades of middlemen-level corruption. Previously Just 0.76 crore workers were verified via Aadhaar seeding, leaving the system vulnerable to leakages. However, the system has now been institutionalized. National Electronic Fund Management System is now fully implemented across 28 States and 8 Union Territories, ensuring wages flow directly from the Government to the worker’s bank account.
10)The Act ensures that the wage rate cannot be lower than the prevailing wage rate and also guarantees that wages can only be revised upwards, effectively neutralizing the fear of income erosion. By empowering the Centre to notify wage rates, the Act allows the government to switch to more accurate inflation indices without needing to amend the Act through Parliament repeatedly.
11)The present framework under the Act promotes responsible utilisation, fiscal discipline, and outcome-based spending, while enabling better planning and sequencing of works at the State, District, and Gram Panchayat levels, ensuring that public funds are used productively, transparently, and for durable asset creation. The integration of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan under the Act ensures a holistic and comprehensive view of local development.
12)The Act raises the employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days annually, strengthening rural livelihood security—unlike the UPA government, which retained the 100-day limit despite rising distress and inflation.
