MGNREGA No More? Govt Plans New Rural Job Scheme Bill With Greater Onus On States

The government is set to introduce a Bill in Parliament to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which provides a legal guarantee of 100 days of wage employment to rural households every year.

The Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB—G RAM G (विकवित भारत—जी राम जी) Bill, 2025, will shift the payment burden on to states. The funding pattern will be 60 per cent Centre and 40 per cent state as against the current norm of full Central liability of labour cost and 75 per cent liability on material cost under the rural job programme.

Sources said the Bill is aimed at establishing a “rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, by providing a statutory

guarantee of one hundred and twenty-five days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work; to promote empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation for a prosperous and resilient rural Bharat”.

NREGA was enacted by the then UPA government in 2005 and was renamed MGNREGA on October 2, 2009. The social security measure established work under MGNREGA as a legal right, meaning the government is obliged to provide employment when requested.

The purpose of MGNREGA is to reduce rural poverty, empower rural communities, and create sustainable assets in villages.