The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 represents a structural evolution rather than a mere replacement of MGNREGA. Critically examine the continuities and departures in the new scheme with reference to employment guarantee, asset creation, and federalism.

Q. The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 represents a structural evolution rather than a mere replacement of MGNREGA. Critically examine the continuities and departures in the new scheme with reference to employment guarantee, asset creation, and federalism. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

The Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025, operational from 1 July 2026, supersedes MGNREGA, 2005 while retaining its legal core — a demand-driven guarantee of unskilled manual work for rural households [3]. The shift is thus one of redesign, not abandonment.

Employment guarantee: deepened entitlement, narrowed window - Continuity: the right to demand work survives, as does the unemployment allowance where work is not provided, with wages payable weekly or within a fortnight [1][3]. - Departure: the entitlement rises from 100 to 125 days per rural household per financial year, raising the rural income floor [2]. - Critical view: an aggregated 60-day no-work period, designed to release labour for peak sowing and harvest, compresses the period in which the additional days can actually be claimed [3].

Asset creation: from isolated earthworks to planned infrastructure - Continuity: Gram Panchayats continue to identify and shelf works, preserving the Article 243G planning role [1]. - Departure: works are channelled into four domains — water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood infrastructure and extreme-weather mitigation — and aligned with PM Gati Shakti and a national rural infrastructure stack [1]. - Critical view: such convergence risks tilting a wage-employment programme toward supply-driven asset targets, where labour becomes an input rather than the objective.

Federalism: cooperative in form, conditional in substance - Departure: wage costs, earlier borne almost wholly by the Centre, now follow 60:40 sharing (90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states); states additionally bear unemployment allowance and delay compensation [1]. - The Centre fixes normative allocations and states meet any excess expenditure — a hard budget ceiling on an open-ended guarantee [1]. - Continuity: central finance remains dominant, with ₹95,692 crore provided for FY 2026-27 [4]; the administrative cap raised to 9% funds staffing and monitoring [2].

Enlarging the entitlement while embedding it in planned infrastructure and shared financing marks genuine structural evolution, though fiscal conditionality could dilute its automaticity. Transparent allocation formulae, timely releases and a strong social-audit architecture would let the Act carry forward Article 41's promise of the right to work into Viksit Bharat @2047.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) VB–G RAM G Bill, 2025 — PRS Legislative Research — retention of unemployment allowance, 60:40 and 90:10 cost sharing, state liability for excess expenditure, Gram Panchayat planning, four work domains, PM Gati Shakti integration 2. Viksit Bharat–G RAM G Bill 2025, Press Information Bureau — increase from 100 to 125 days; administrative expenditure ceiling raised from 6% to 9% 3. VB-G RAM G Act to Come into Force from July 1, 2026 — Press Information Bureau — date of commencement, right to demand employment not diluted, weekly/fortnightly wage payment, aggregated 60-day no-work period 4. Provision of ₹95,692 crore made for Viksit Bharat–G RAM G scheme in FY 2026-27 — News On AIR (Prasar Bharati) — central allocation figure for FY 2026-27