MGNREGA achieved significant gains, VB-G RAM G represents decisive shift in rural job policy, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• The Economic Survey 2025-26 acknowledges MGNREGS's gains in participation, digitisation, and transparency but notes persistent structural weaknesses.
• The Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-G RAM G Act, 2025) is termed a decisive shift in rural employment policy.
• The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 aims to modernize rural employment guarantees, strengthen accountability, and align employment creation with long-term infrastructure and climate resilience goals.
• In December 2025, the government repealed the MGNREG Act, 2005 and enacted the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025.

Detailed Insights:

• The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 is considered a comprehensive statutory overhaul of MGNREGS, aligning rural employment with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
• The new Act seeks to address shortcomings of MGNREGS through a modern, accountable, and infrastructure-focused framework.
• The Economic Survey 2025-26 also highlighted the need for revival of village commons, including grazing fields and water bodies, for rural development.
• Opposition parties have criticized certain provisions of the VB-G RAM G Act, including fund-sharing patterns, normative allocation, and a pause in employment guarantee during peak agriculture season.

Key Concepts Involved:

• MGNREGS: Aims to enhance livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Viksit Bharat 2047: Government of India initiative to make India a developed nation by 2047, the 100th year of India's independence.
• Village Commons: Common land resources in a village, such as grazing fields and water bodies, that are collectively managed and used by the community.