President Droupadi Murmu Gives assent to VB-G RAM Bill 2025 replacing MGNREGA

In December 2025, the President of India (PoI) Droupadi Murmu officially approved the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, a significant milestone in the transformation of rural employment policy.

• The Act replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 with a modern statutory framework that enhances livelihood security and is aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

Key Features:

Enhanced Employment Guarantee: As per the Section 5(1) of the Act, the statutory wage employment guarantee increases from 100 to 125 days per rural household in each financial year (FY) to households whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.

Farm-Labour balance: The Section 6 of the Act facilitates adequate availability of agricultural labour during peak sowing and harvesting seasons, empowering States to notify an aggregated pause period aggregating to sixty days in a FY.

• The full 125-days employment guarantee remains intact and will be provided during the rest of the year, ensuring both farm productivity and worker security.

Financial Framework: The Act is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) with cost sharing pattern as 60:40 between the centre and states, 90:10 for North Eastern (NE) and Himalayan States, and 100% central funding for Union Territories (UTs) without legislatures.

Administrative Expenditure: The administrative expenditure ceiling has been enhanced from 6% to 9%, enabling improved staffing, training, technical capacity and field-level support.

Wage Payments: The Act requires that wages be paid on a weekly basis, and in all cases no later than fifteen days after the completion of work, as provided under Section 5(3). The penalty regime increased upto Rs.10,000.

• Delays in wage payments require compensation under Schedule II, ensuring timely payments and protecting workers from financial hardship.

Implementation and monitoring: MGNREGA establishes Councils at the central and state levels to undertake implementation and monitoring.  The Bill retains these provisions and also provides that their composition will be specified under Rules. It constitutes the National Level Steering Committee which will provide high-level oversight, and recommend normative allocations.

• It also constitutes a Steering Committee for each state.  Key functions of the State Committee include: (i) overseeing convergence with other programmes, (ii) aggregation of district plans into state plans, and (iii) coordinating with the National Committee.

Rural Infrastructure: As per the Section 4(2) of the the Act, the wage employment is linked to the creation of durable public assets across following four priority areas:

• Water security and water-related works
• Core rural infrastructure
• Livelihood-related infrastructure
• Works to mitigate extreme weather events

Decentralised Planning: The new framework empowers gram sabhas and panchayats to lead planning through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans (VGPPs), approved via participatory processes.

• These bottom-up plans integrate digitally with national platforms like PM (Prime Minister) Gati Shakti, enabling whole-of-government convergence to avoid duplication and accelerate infrastructure saturation.

Technology and Inclusion: Sections 23 and 24 of the Act provides for technology-enabled transparency through biometric authentication, geo-tagging and real-time dashboards.

• While Section 20 strengthens social audits by Gram Sabhas, ensuring community oversight, transparency and inclusion.

Unemployment Allowance:  If a worker is not provided employment within the specified period, the allowance becomes payable after fifteen days.