The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, while expanding the employment guarantee to 125 days, has been criticised for its insufficient budgetary allocation. Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of this legislation as a successor to MGNREGA.

Q. The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, while expanding the employment guarantee to 125 days, has been criticised for its insufficient budgetary allocation. Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of this legislation as a successor to MGNREGA. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

Notified on 11 May 2026 and in force from 1 July 2026, the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act repeals MGNREGA, 2005 and raises the wage-employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days per rural household [1]. It deepens the entitlement on paper, but its financing architecture determines whether that promise is realisable.

Strengths as a successor

• Wider entitlement: 25 additional guaranteed days, retained as a justiciable, demand-driven right with unemployment allowance if work is not provided within 15 days [2] — continuity with MGNREGA's rights-based core rather than dilution into a discretionary scheme.
• Productivity orientation: focus on water security, rural infrastructure, livelihoods and climate adaptation, with assets aggregated into a Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, addressing the long-standing critique of poor asset durability [3].
• Livelihood continuum: the "Ajeevika" framing links unskilled wage work to skilling and self-employment, moving beyond pure income transfer [3].
• Fiscal commitment: ₹95,692 crore central share for 2026–27 [4], the largest budget-estimate provision for rural employment.

Limitations

• Allocation–promise mismatch: a 25% larger guarantee is not matched proportionately; the Act's normative state-wise allocation, with states bearing expenditure beyond the cap, risks administrative rationing of demand [2][4].
• Cost-sharing burden on states: a 60:40 pattern (90:10 for North-eastern and Himalayan states) replaces the Centre's earlier full funding of unskilled wages, straining fiscally weak states [2].
• Pause provision: states must notify up to 60 days annually when no works are undertaken [2], constraining the demand-driven principle during distress.
• Transition risk: reorienting panchayat machinery within months of assent (December 2025) [5] may disrupt existing job-card holders.

A stronger guarantee is welcome, but rights expand only as far as funds follow. Anchoring allocations to actual demand, clarifying state shares, and preserving social-audit accountability would let VB-G RAM G realise its Viksit Bharat@2047 promise of dignified rural work.

(~325 words)

Sources: 1. Historic Commencement of Viksit Bharat – G RAM G Act Across Rural India from July 1st 2026, PIB — 125-day guarantee, notification of 11 May 2026, repeal of MGNREGA, transition of ongoing works 2. The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, PRS Legislative Research — 60:40 and 90:10 cost sharing, 60-day pause period, normative allocation and state liability for excess, 15-day unemployment allowance 3. Viksit Bharat – G RAM G Act 2025 (Press Note), PIB — focus sectors, National Rural Infrastructure Stack, livelihood/asset-creation rationale 4. Provision of ₹95,692 crore made for Viksit Bharat–G RAM G in FY 2026-27, News on AIR (Prasar Bharati) — 2026–27 central allocation stated in Rajya Sabha 5. President gives assent to VB–G RAM G Bill, 2025, PIB — Presidential assent, December 2025