Ministry of Rural Development Notifies 375 Permissible Works under VB–G RAM G

1. At a Glance

• The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has notified the Schedule of Permissible Works under the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) [VB–G RAM G] Act, 2025. It lists 375 works, up from 266 under the previous framework. [1]
• The works are grouped under 4 thematic pillars: Water Security, Core Rural Infrastructure, Livelihood-related Infrastructure, and Special Works for Extreme Weather Events and Disaster Preparedness. [1]
• The aim is to move from a plain list of asset types to tying wage employment to durable assets and measurable outcomes. [1]
• Why it matters for UPSC: it is the operational core of the law that replaced MGNREGA, 2005. It touches rural employment, fiscal federalism, decentralised planning through the Gram Sabha, and climate resilience. [1][2]

2. Why in the News

• 6 Oct 2026: MoRD notified the 375-work Schedule under VB–G RAM G. [1]
• 1 Jul 2026: the VB–G RAM G Act came into force across all rural areas, and MGNREGA stood repealed from the same date. [3]

3. Background & Evolution

• Predecessor: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), which guaranteed at least 100 days of wage work a year to rural households. [2]
• Rationale: to raise the guarantee and align wage work with asset creation in four thematic domains, under the "Viksit Bharat @2047" vision. [1][2]
• Milestones:
• 16 Dec 2025: Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. [2][5]
• 18 Dec 2025: passed by both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. [2]
• Dec 2025: President gave assent to the VB–G RAM G Bill, 2025. [4]
• 1 Jul 2026: Act commenced and MGNREGA was repealed. [3]
• 6 Oct 2026: Schedule of 375 permissible works notified. [1]

4. Core Static Facts

Breakdown of the 375 works [1]:

Cross-cutting tags [1]:

• Agriculture and allied: 181 works (52 for individual beneficiaries)
• Antyodaya/vulnerable households: 107 works (68 for individual beneficiaries)
• Nari Shakti: 36 works
• Yuva Shakti: 36 works

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Economic

• Livelihood works rise from 1.1% to 26% of the list: agro-processing, cold storage, market yards, dairy, sericulture and aquaculture structures. This pushes the scheme from relief work toward value chains. [1]
• The guarantee rises to 125 days, but the normative allocation puts spending above the cap on States. That could limit the guarantee in practice where demand is high. [2]
• The 60-day agricultural pause is meant to avoid competing with farm labour demand at peak seasons. [2]

Social

• 107 works are tagged for Antyodaya/vulnerable households, covering housing, sanitation, energy and livestock shelters. [1]
• Women and youth: 36 Nari Shakti works (SHG worksheds, SHE Marts, federation buildings) and 36 Yuva Shakti works (youth centres, skill centres). [1]
• Explicit Divyangjan accessibility works, such as ramps and stairs in government buildings. [1]

Environmental / Climate

• Water Security is the largest pillar: check dams, gully plugs, underground dykes, recharge shafts, injection wells, river and nallah rejuvenation, drip and sprinkler irrigation, tankas, ice-stupas and artificial glaciers. [1]
• 38 disaster works for the first time: flood shelters, embankments, post-disaster restoration, and forest-fire fire lines and fuel-buffer zones. [1]
• Circular economy: waste-to-wealth plants, greywater treatment units, segregation sheds. [1]

Governance / Federalism

• Bottom-up planning through VGPPs approved by the Gram Sabha links the scheme to Part IX (Panchayats) decentralisation. [1]
• The 60:40 sharing shifts more fiscal burden to States. The 90:10 rate protects NE and Himalayan States. [2]
• The Infrastructure Stack is meant to support convergence across Central, State and local schemes and prevent duplication. [1]

Administrative

• Convergence is handled by State Steering Committees. [2]
• The Schedule allows repair and maintenance of Jal Jeevan Mission water-supply assets, which links two flagship schemes. [1]
• Risk: a 375-item menu needs technical capacity at the Gram Panchayat level for planning and estimation. (Analytical inference, not from a source.)

Strategic

• The Schedule includes emergency evacuation and relief shelters in border areas. [1]

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• 16 Dec 2025: VB–G RAM G Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha. [2]
• 18 Dec 2025: Bill passed by both Houses. [2]
• Dec 2025: Presidential assent. [4]
• 1 Jul 2026: Act commenced nationwide in rural areas and MGNREGA was repealed. [3]
• 6 Oct 2026: 375-work Schedule notified in 4 pillars. [1]

7. Prelims Hooks

• VB–G RAM G Schedule has 375 permissible works, against 266 under the previous framework (41% expansion). [1]
• Notified by the Ministry of Rural Development (not the Ministry of Panchayati Raj or Agriculture). [1]
• Largest pillar: Water Security, 128 works. [1]
• Smallest pillar: Disaster Preparedness and Extreme Weather, 38 works. It is the first dedicated category of its kind. [1]
• Livelihood works are 26% of the total, up from 1.1%. [1]
• 181 works are agriculture and allied; 52 of them are individual-beneficiary works. [1]
• 107 works are tagged Antyodaya; 68 of them are individual-beneficiary works. [1]
• Nari Shakti: 36 works; Yuva Shakti: 36 works. [1]
• Ice-stupas and artificial glaciers are permissible water-conservation works. [1]
• Works come from the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan, approved by the Gram Sabha. [1]
• Tracking platform: Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack. [1]
• Guarantee: 125 days, against 100 under MGNREGA. [2]
• Funding is 60:40, or 90:10 for NE and Himalayan States. [2]
• Up to a 60-day no-work pause in peak agricultural seasons, notified by States. [2]
• Act in force and MGNREGA repealed from 1 July 2026. [3]

8. Why 125 Days on Paper May Mean Fewer Days in Practice

• The Centre now fixes a ceiling before demand is known
• Normative allocation means the amount the Centre decides to give each State every year, using its own 'objective parameters' [6].
• Any work above that amount is paid fully by the State [2].

• So a poor State with high demand pays 100% of every extra day. It has a reason to slow down new work once the allocation runs out.

• The safety net is now paid entirely by the States

• Unemployment allowance is the money paid when a worker asks for work and does not get it within 15 days. Delay compensation is the extra money paid when wages come late.
• Under the new Act, States alone pay for both [6].

• This is the safety net that is supposed to force governments to give work on time. Making the States pay alone does not guarantee they will pay.

• States already avoided paying this when it was their cost

• Under MGNREGA too, the allowance was a State cost [6].
• The Parliamentary Standing Committee found that Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan paid no unemployment allowance at all from 2018 to 2023 [7].
• Delay compensation was also mostly unpaid. In 2022-23, Rs 94 lakh was approved but only Rs 59 lakh paid. In 2023-24, only Rs 2.5 lakh of Rs 24 lakh was paid [7].

• If States skipped this duty when the bill was small, a bigger bill makes them more likely to skip it.

• Most households never reached even 100 days

• The government itself says only a small share of households completed 100 days after the pandemic [6].
• Raising the legal number to 125 does not help if the real problem was getting work in the first place.

9. The Government's Case — and What It Gets Right

• The strongest argument for the change
• The government says a demand-based model makes budgets unpredictable, so funds do not match need [6].
• It admits to serious leaks under MGNREGA: work that could not be found on the ground, spending that did not match physical progress, machines used on works meant for manual labour, and digital attendance being bypassed [6].

• Poverty fell from 27.1% in 2011-12 to 5.3% in 2022-23, so an open-ended, demand-driven scheme may no longer fit rural India [6].

• What is right about it

• MGNREGA was demand-driven only in law, not in its budget. In 2023-24 it got Rs 60,000 crore against a demand of Rs 98,000 crore [7].
• So work was already being limited, quietly, through late payments. A fixed allocation at least makes the limit visible and lets States plan.

• The government has also raised the cap on admin spending from 6% to 9% of funds, for staff, training and technical skills [6]. That answers a real weakness: the Committee found States were not even getting their 6% admin share [7].

• What it does not answer

• Before, a funding shortfall broke the law. Now the limit is written into the law itself.
• Leaks happen at the worksite, through fake work and skipped attendance. Shifting cost to States does not stop them. Social audits do, and only 32% of Gram Panchayats were audited in 2023-24 [7].
• Social audit means villagers publicly checking the scheme's records against the work actually done.

10. Why the States Will Feel the Squeeze

• The Centre used to pay the whole wage bill. Now it does not
• Under MGNREGA, the Centre paid the full cost of unskilled wages [6].

• Now wages are split 60:40 as well. This is how a Centrally Sponsored Scheme works: the Centre and the States share the cost [6].

• The size of the new State bill

• The government puts the total yearly need at Rs 1,51,282 crore, and the Centre's share at Rs 95,692.31 crore [6].

• That leaves about Rs 55,590 crore a year for the States, before any spending above the allocation.

• The States that need the scheme most can least afford it

• Demand for wage work is highest where rural incomes are lowest.
• Those same States have the least room in their budgets to pay 40%, plus all spending above the allocation, plus the allowance [2][6].
• Only the NE and Himalayan States get 90:10 support [2]. Poor States in the plains with high demand get no such relief.

11. Who the 60-Day Pause Really Protects

• The official reason is labour for farms
• States can pause all work for up to 60 days in sowing and harvest seasons [2].

• The government lists 'prevention of artificial wage inflation in agriculture' as a benefit for farmers [6].

• The cost falls on the landless worker

• Peak season is when farm workers have the most bargaining power. A public job is their fallback option.
• Removing that fallback holds farm wages down. That is the goal for the farmer and the loss for the worker.

• The government says workers still get 125 days in the remaining 305 days [6]. But the lean months are also the months when the normative cap is most likely to bite.

• MGNREGA wages are already below the minimum wage

• In 2023-24, the MGNREGA wage was Rs 221 a day in MP and Chhattisgarh, and Rs 228 in Bihar and Jharkhand. A government committee had suggested Rs 375 [7].
• The wage formula still uses 2010-11 as its base year, which the Standing Committee said does not match today's prices [7].

12. Why a Longer List of Works Won't Fix the Old Leaks

• The 375-item list needs engineers the Panchayats don't have
• Cold storage, market yards, injection wells and fire lines need technical designs and cost estimates. Ponds and roads did not.
• The government admits field staff worked with limited administrative resources and staff [6].

• Without trained people at the Gram Panchayat, the plan will pick the easy works on the list, not the useful ones.

• Livelihood assets need more material and machines

• Works like agro-processing units and dairy structures need more material and skilled work than unskilled labour [1].

• This raises the risk of something the government already named as a problem: machines doing work meant for manual labour [6].

• Digital checks can shut out real workers

• In November 2023, 14% of job cardholders were not linked to Aadhaar [7].
• The Standing Committee advised against making Aadhaar compulsory until the system was foolproof [7]. The new Act adds biometric checks [2].

13. What Should Be Fixed in the Rules

• MoRD should publish the formula for the normative allocation
• The Act says allocation will use 'objective parameters' but does not name them [6].

• A public formula that counts past demand and rural poverty would let States check their share and plan.

• The Centre should share the cost of delay compensation

• Late wages are often caused by late fund release from the Centre. The Standing Committee asked MoRD to make payments smoother [7].

• If the Centre's delays cost only the States money, the Centre has no reason to pay on time.

• MoRD should revise the wage base, as the Standing Committee asked

• The Committee wanted the old 2010-11 base year updated, and noted the Rs 375 suggestion [7].

• The Committee also wanted 150 days, not 125 [7]. More days do little if each day pays less than the minimum wage.

• States must cover every Panchayat with social audits

• Only 32% were covered in 2023-24. Goa, Andaman & Nicobar and Puducherry had no Social Audit Unit at all [7].

• The new Act says social audits are mandatory [6]. The rules should set a minimum coverage and penalise States that fall short.

• Use the extra admin money to put technical staff in Panchayats

• The 9% admin cap [6] should pay for junior engineers who can turn the 375-item list into proper project plans.

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: Rs 1,51,282 crore yearly total need; Centre's share Rs 95,692.31 crore, so States pay about Rs 55,590 crore [6]
• Data: In 2023-24, MGNREGA got Rs 60,000 crore against a demand of Rs 98,000 crore. The 'demand-driven' scheme was already short of money [7]
• Data: Women's share of work rose from 48% (2013-14) to 58.15% (2025-26) [6]
• Data: Only 32% of Gram Panchayats had a social audit in 2023-24 [7]
• Report/Committee: Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (Chair: Kanimozhi Karunanidhi), Feb 2024. It recommended 150 days, an updated wage base, and no compulsory Aadhaar [7]
• Law/Case: VB–G RAM G Act, 2025: the States alone pay unemployment allowance and delay compensation [6]. Compare the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Act, 1977, the first law to make work a legal right [6]
• Comparison: MGNREGA vs VB–G RAM G. The Centre paid all unskilled wages before; now wages are split 60:40 [6]
• Scheme: PM Gati Shakti: Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans will be mapped onto it [6]. Jal Jeevan Mission: its assets can be repaired under the new Schedule [1]

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: Government policies and interventions; welfare schemes for vulnerable sections; devolution to local bodies.
• GS-III: Inclusive growth and employment; rural infrastructure; disaster management; water conservation.
• GS-I (minor): Role of women's organisations and SHGs.
• Question stems: 1. The shift from MGNREGA to VB–G RAM G marks a move from a demand-driven wage guarantee to outcome-oriented asset creation. Critically examine. (15 marks) 2. Discuss the implications of the normative allocation and 60:40 fund-sharing pattern under VB–G RAM G for cooperative federalism. (10 marks) 3. How can rural employment programmes be leveraged for climate resilience and water security? Illustrate with the new Schedule of works under VB–G RAM G. (15 marks)

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• MGNREGA, 2005: the repealed predecessor; compare guarantee, funding and works. [2]
• Jal Jeevan Mission: its assets can be repaired and maintained under the new Schedule. [1]
• DAY-NRLM / SHGs: SHG worksheds, SHE Marts and federation buildings are permissible works. [1]
• 73rd Amendment, Gram Sabha and GPDP: the constitutional basis for VGPP-led planning.
• Centrally Sponsored Schemes rationalisation: context for the 60:40 and 90:10 split. [2]
• NDMA and the Disaster Management Act, 2005: context for the new disaster-preparedness pillar.
• Watershed management (PMKSY): overlaps with the water-security works.
• Viksit Bharat @2047: the overarching policy vision. [1]

17. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (Polity): The repealed predecessor law; the whole note compares VB–G RAM G's guarantee, funding and works against it.
• Centrally sponsored schemes (Economy): Explains the 60:40 and 90:10 Centre-State cost sharing that creates the fiscal burden on States.
• Unemployment allowance (Economy): Payable when work isn't given in 15 days; now paid entirely by States, which weakens enforcement.
• Gram sabha (Polity): It approves the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan, which decides which of the 375 works get done.
• Social audit (Polity): The main check on fake work and leaks; low audit coverage is a key weakness.
• Panchayati raj (Polity): Constitutional basis for village-level planning and why Gram Panchayat technical capacity matters for the 375-work list.

18. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Ministry confusion: the Schedule was notified by MoRD [1]. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who piloted the Bill, holds both the Rural Development and Agriculture portfolios [5], so options often swap these ministries.
• Count mix-ups: 375 is the new total and 266 the old one. 128, 111, 98 and 38 are the pillar counts. 181 is the agriculture-and-allied tag, which cuts across pillars and is not a pillar. [1]
• Duplicate counts: Nari Shakti and Yuva Shakti both have 36 works. Don't confuse 52 individual works (agriculture tag) with 68 individual works (Antyodaya tag). [1]
• Funding ratio: the general rate is 60:40, not MGNREGA-style full central funding of wages. The 90:10 rate applies to NE and Himalayan States only. [2]
• Dates: the Bill was passed in Dec 2025 but the Act commenced on 1 Jul 2026. The Schedule was notified on 6 Oct 2026. [2][3][1]