President Approves Viksit Bharat Rozgar Bill 2025: 125-Day Job Guarantee Replaces MGNREGA Amid Opposition Fury
The VB, G RAM G Bill, 2025, which was approved by the Parliament this week, has received the assent of President Droupadi Murmu, the Rural Development Ministry said on Sunday.
Aadrika Tayal 
New Delhi (India) December 21: According to the Ministry of Rural Development, President Droupadi Murmu has approved the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 (VB, G RAM G Bill, 2025) on Sunday.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, intends to create a new rural employment law to replace MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and assures 125 days of wage employment per rural household per year of the financial year.
Parliamentary Passage Amid Fierce Debates
The VB, G RAM G Bill was approved by the Rajya Sabha late on Thursday night, a few hours after the Lok Sabha gave its assent amid opposition protests accusing the Centre of removing Gandhiji's name from the existing scheme and blaming the Centre for the increase in the financial burden on the states.
The Opposition protested vehemently against the bill that offers a guarantee of 125 days of rural wage employment every year. 125 days of wage employment in the VB, G RAM G Bill is a statutory provision that will help the rural development framework in line with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 to be realized.
Tech-Driven Ecosystem for Transparency
The VB, G RAM G presents a detailed digital ecosystem that covers biometric authentication at different levels, using a global positioning system or a mobile, based worksite for monitoring, proactive public disclosures, and artificial intelligence for planning, audits, and fraud risk mitigation, which will be used to modernize governance, accountability, and citizen engagement.
The VB, G RAM G Bill has mentioned that every panchayat shall prepare saturation mode plans based on its classification into categories A, B, C, determined based on development parameters.
New Funding: 60:40 Split with Special Provisions
Centre and the states fund, sharing pattern will be 60:40. For the Northeastern states, Himalayan states, and Union Territories, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir, the ratio will be 90:10.
Section 6 of the Bill provides the opportunity for state governments to notify in advance a period totaling 60 days in a financial year, which would cover the peak agricultural seasons such as sowing and harvesting.
From MGNREGA to VB GRAM G: Key Evolution
It was first passed in 2005 as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and was renamed in 2009 as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Its primary objective was to improve the livelihood security of the rural households. The Act ensured at least 100 days of wage employment per financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteered for unskilled work without any conditions.
Under MGNREGA the gram panchayat is in charge of the identification of projects in its area. The gram sabha or ward sabha would hold open assemblies for making plans and decisions regarding the nature and choice of works to be undertaken, the order of each worksite selection, etc. and the panchayat would ratify them.
The programme officer would allocate at least 50 per cent of the works in terms of cost under the scheme, to be executed through the gram panchayats.
