Finance
President Droupadi Murmu has signed the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G) Bill, 2025, an official stated on Sunday.
According to the Rural Development Ministry official, the move represents a big step forward in the revamping of rural job policies.
The new VB — G RAM G Act, 2025, increases the statutory wage employment guarantee for rural households to 125 days per fiscal year and aims to promote empowerment, inclusive growth, convergence of development initiatives, and saturation-based delivery, laying the groundwork for a prosperous, resilient, and self-sufficient Rural Bharat.
Earlier, Parliament enacted the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, which marked a significant shift in India’s rural employment and development framework.
The Act replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of 2005 with a more modern statutory framework that improves livelihood security and is consistent with the national goal of Viksit Bharat @2047.
According to the Ministry, the Act is based on the ideas of empowerment, growth, convergence, and saturation, and aims to transform rural employment from a single social intervention to an integrated development tool.
It increases rural households’ income security, modernizes governance and accountability, and connects wage employment to the building of long-term and productive rural assets, establishing the groundwork for a successful and resilient Rural Bharat, according to the statement.
According to the statement, the Enhanced Statutory Employment Guarantee is one of the Act’s important elements.
The Act guarantees at least 125 days of paid employment per rural household in each fiscal year to households whose adult members volunteer to perform unskilled manual labor (Section 5(1)), it stated.
This increase over the previous 100-day entitlement greatly improves livelihood security, job predictability, and income stability for rural households, while also allowing them to contribute more effectively and meaningfully to national development.
The Act also includes a balanced allocation for agricultural and rural labour. To ensure enough agricultural labour availability during peak sowing and harvesting seasons, the Act allows States to notify an aggregated pause period of up to 60 days in a fiscal year (Section 6).
The Ministry stated that the entire 125-day employment guarantee will continue to be granted over the remaining term, maintaining a balanced support for both agricultural productivity and worker security.
Under the Act, technology is supposed to be an enabler rather than a barrier. Sections 23 and 24 provide technological transparency through biometric authentication, geotagging, and real-time dashboards, while Section 20 increases Gram Sabhas’ social audits to ensure community supervision, transparency, and inclusion, according to the statement.
The Act repeals previous disentitlement measures and reinstates unemployment benefits as a meaningful statutory protection. It said that if employment is not found within the specified time frame, unemployment benefits will be paid after 15 days.
