Critically evaluate the transition from MGNREGA to the VB-GRAM G Act, 2025, in terms of its impact on the right-to-work guarantee and rural demand.

MGNREGA, 2005 — India's only law built on the right-to-work idea drawn from Article 41 (DPSP) — stood repealed on 1 July 2026, when the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 commenced across rural India [1]. The transition widens the statutory promise on paper, but its early record makes delivery, not design, the real test.

Where the transition strengthens the guarantee

• Statutory entitlement raised from 100 to 125 days of wage employment per rural household per financial year, with the 15-day unemployment allowance retained [2][3].
• Works restructured around four thematic domains — water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood infrastructure and climate resilience — tying wage employment to durable, climate-resilient assets [3].
• Substantial outlay: about ₹95,692 crore Central allocation for 2026-27, with total programme size crossing ₹1.51 lakh crore including State shares [1].
• Gram panchayats retain planning powers, while biometric authentication, geospatial planning and real-time dashboards aim to curb leakages [3].

Where the guarantee is diluted

• The right to work remains a Directive Principle, not a Fundamental Right; repealing a rights-based statute shifts the anchor from entitlement to mission-mode delivery, and judicial observations have only questioned, not settled, whether it merits Article 21 standing.
• A 60:40 cost-sharing formula (90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan States), with States bearing costs above normative allocation and the unemployment allowance, risks rationing of demand-driven work in fiscally weak States [3].
• Persisting friction between Centre-notified rates and State minimum wages keeps alive the claim that sub-minimum payment approaches forced labour (Article 23).
• Person-days and participating households fell sharply in the first months of rollout against recent averages — attributed officially to transition and sowing-season effects, but weakening the scheme's role as an automatic stabiliser of rural demand.

On balance, VB-G RAM G expands the promise while loosening the guarantee's rights character. Restoring demand-driven sanctity — timely wage payment, adequate normative allocations, and transparent grievance redress — would let the higher 125-day entitlement translate into real rural purchasing power, honouring the constitutional aspiration of Article 41.