President Droupadi Murmu
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat -- Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB-G RAM G Act 2025, which will replace the 20-year-old MGNREGA.
The President gave her assent to the new Act on Saturday, a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice said on Sunday.
The new rural employment guarantee law was passed by Parliament on Thursday, amid vociferous protests by the Opposition, which objected to making it a supply-driven scheme and making states fund 40 per cent of the programme.
The new Act guarantees 125 days of employment to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.
The Union government has not notified a date for the new law's implementation and once it is done, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act will cease to exist. The new Act also said that till new rules and wages are notified, those prescribed in the MGNREGA will continue to be in effect.
A statement from the Ministry of Rural Development said that the Act replaces the MGNREGA 2005 with a modern statutory framework that enhances livelihood security and is aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
"Anchored in the principles of empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation, the Act seeks to transform rural employment from a standalone welfare intervention into an integrated instrument of development,” the statement said.
“It strengthens income security for rural households, modernises governance and accountability, and links wage employment with the creation of durable and productive rural assets, thereby laying the foundation for a prosperous and resilient Rural Bharat," it added.