The Lok Sabha has taken up the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): Viksit Bharat – G RAM G Bill 2025 for consideration and passing. The legislation will replace the twenty-year-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. The Bill seeks to establish a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

 

 

Under the legislation, a statutory guarantee of one hundred and twenty-five days of wage employment will be provided in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work. The fund-sharing pattern between the central government and state governments will be 60:40 for all states other than the North-eastern and the Himalayan states, wherein the sharing arrangement will be 90:10.

 

 

The state government will continue to pay unemployment allowance and compensation. The bill provides for using biometric authentication for transactions, geospatial technology for planning and monitoring, mobile application-based dashboards for real-time tracking, and weekly public disclosure systems.

 

 

All works undertaken under this Bill will be aggregated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, creating a unified national framework for rural public works. The thematic priority will be accorded to water security through water-related works, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure, and special works aimed at mitigating the impact of extreme weather events and disaster preparedness. This approach will ensure the creation of productive, durable, resilient and transformative rural assets across the country.

 

 

Moving the Viksit Bharat- G RAM G Bill in the Lok Sabha, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the bill will ensure the development of villages. He said the bill proposes to enhance the guarantee of days of employment from 100 to 125 days of wage employment. He said the Bill will fulfil the vision of Mahatma Gandhi of creating self-reliant, developed, and poverty-free villages.

 

 

Initiating the discussion, Jai Prakash of Congress said the BJP opposed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill when it was tabled in the Parliament during the UPA rule. He said, the then Congress-led government brought this bill with the consensus of all parties and taking into consideration their suggestion. He questioned the government over the Minimum Support Prices of food grains, saying that the Congress government brought a legislation for the guarantee of employment, but the NDA government has not passed a bill ensuring a legal guarantee for MSP.

 

 

Brijmohan Agarwal of BJP said that  Vikshit Bharat- G RAM G Bill has been brought to fulfil the vision of Mahatma Gandhi. He said, this bill will ensure the statutory guarantee of employment. He alleged that Congress made corruption through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee.

 

 

Criticising the bill, Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel of the Samajwadi Party questioned whether 125 days of work would be given to the poor people.  He also raised questions over the fund-sharing pattern, saying that it will put a burden on the State’s finances.

 

 

Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress said, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was aimed at creating durable infrastructure. He accused the NDA government of bringing a new bill without wider consultations with the stakeholders.

 

 

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi of DMK alleged that the Viksit Bharat- G RAM G Bill takes away human dignity and fails to protect the legal right of people to work. She criticised the government for bringing legislation in Hindi, questioning why the government does not bring legislation in southern Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, among others.

 

 

Dileshwar Kamait of JDU said, this bill will ensure the statutory guarantee of employment by empowering women and creating durable assets in the villages. He said the bill has a provision for providing an unemployment allowance.

 

 

Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu of TDP welcomed the bill saying that the budgetary allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme has been increased to 86 thousand crore rupees in the financial year 2025-26. The discussion is underway.