New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, marking a significant milestone in India’s rural employment and development framework, officials said on Sunday.
A statement from the Rural Development Ministry said the new VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, enhances the statutory wage employment guarantee to 125 days per financial year for rural households, replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, with a modern framework aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.
The Act aims to transform rural employment from a standalone welfare scheme into an integrated instrument of development, strengthening income security, modernising governance and accountability, and linking wage employment to the creation of durable and productive rural assets. It focuses on empowerment, inclusive growth, convergence of development initiatives, and saturation-based delivery to build a prosperous, resilient, and self-reliant Rural Bharat.
Under the enhanced statutory guarantee, households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work are entitled to a minimum of 125 days of wage employment per financial year (Section 5(1)), up from the previous 100-day entitlement. This increase is designed to improve livelihood security, predictability of work, and income stability, while enabling rural households to contribute effectively to national development.
To balance agricultural labour needs, the Act allows States to declare an aggregated pause period of up to 60 days during peak sowing and harvesting seasons (Section 6), while ensuring the full 125-day employment guarantee is met during the remaining period.
The Act also integrates technology as an enabling mechanism: Sections 23 and 24 provide for biometric authentication, geo-tagging, and real-time dashboards, while Section 20 strengthens social audits by Gram Sabhas, ensuring community oversight, transparency, and inclusion.
Earlier dis-entitlement provisions have been removed, and the Act restores unemployment allowance as a statutory safeguard. If employment is not provided within the stipulated period, households are entitled to unemployment allowance after 15 days.
The Ministry described the passage of the VB-G RAM G Act as a decisive reform that enhances livelihood security, strengthens governance, and aligns rural employment with India’s long-term vision of economic growth and empowerment.
With IANS inputs