VB-G RAM G scheme trails MGNREGS by 9% in August

Why in the News

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), known as VB-G RAM G, generated 9.01 percent fewer persondays in August than the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) did in the same month a year earlier. The new scheme replaced MGNREGS from July 2026, and its first month recorded a far steeper fall, so the two months together sit well below the corresponding period of 2025. The Union Ministry of Rural Development has said it is too early to judge the scheme, attributing part of the dip to a 60 day pause linked to notified peak agricultural periods, which is a feature the new Act introduces. The contested point is whether a smaller volume of work reflects a transition between two systems or a design that narrows the guarantee itself.

What is the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)?

1. VB-G RAM G: It is the Centre’s rural wage employment programme, operational from July 2026, which has replaced MGNREGS as the vehicle for guaranteed work to rural households.
2. Peak agricultural period flexibility: The governing Act lets each State notify its own peak agricultural periods, during which the programme pauses so it complements farm work rather than competing with it for labour.
3. Sub State notification: States may issue area specific notifications for districts, blocks or gram panchayats, based on agro climatic conditions and local cropping patterns.
4. Entitlement document: Work is accessed through a Gramin Rozgar Guarantee card, and job cards already issued under MGNREGS remain valid for the purpose.

How far has work generation fallen?

1. First month: Persondays fell from 17.65 crore in July 2025 under MGNREGS to 9.18 crore in July 2026, a decline of 48.01 percent.
2. Second month: Persondays fell from 12.12 crore in August 2025 to 11.03 crore this August, the decline narrowing sharply against July.
3. Cumulative position: Across July and August together the figure fell from 29.78 crore to 20.21 crore persondays, a decline of 32.13 percent.
4. Direction inside the new scheme: August recorded a modest improvement in employment generation over July, so the programme is rising month on month while still trailing its predecessor year on year.

Why is the year on year comparison understated?

1. A missing State in the base year: No persondays at all were generated in West Bengal under MGNREGS in 2025, so the comparison base excludes one large State’s entire contribution.
2. Origin of the stoppage: Implementation of MGNREGS in West Bengal was stalled in December 2021.
3. Formal suspension of funds: The Union government officially froze all financial disbursements to the State on 9 March 2022.
4. Effect on the measured gap: With the base year short of one major State’s persondays, the true fall in work generated is wider than the reported percentages show.

What explains the dip, according to the Ministry?

1. Too early to judge: The Union Ministry of Rural Development’s stated position is that two months of operation are not a basis on which to assess the scheme’s performance.
2. The agricultural pause: A 60 day pause in employment through the peak agricultural season is cited as a contributor to the lower persondays generated.
3. Notification progress: 16 States and Union Territories have so far notified their respective peak agricultural periods.
4. The stated design intent: Tailoring the pause to local calendars is meant to let the employment programme complement peak agricultural activity instead of drawing labour away from it.

What has the migration from MGNREGS involved?

1. Automatic migration: Every worker registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 has been migrated to VB-G RAM G, irrespective of the e-KYC status of the job card.
2. New cards issued: 6,40,779 new Gramin Rozgar Guarantee cards have been issued across States and Union Territories since the scheme became operational.
3. e-KYC completion: e-KYC has been completed for 15.89 crore workers, including 10.27 crore of the 10.84 crore active workers, roughly 95 percent.
4. Pending e-KYC is not a bar: The Ministry has clarified that incomplete e-KYC does not prevent a worker from demanding or receiving employment.

Challenges to VB-G RAM G

1. A notified pause narrows the guarantee: Suspending work for a fixed stretch each year withdraws the entitlement in exactly the districts where farm distress and the farm calendar overlap. Eg. A landless labourer in a rainfall deficient district finds less farm work available precisely in the season the pause assumes is busy.
   The Fix: Make the notified pause conditional on a district level rainfall or sown area trigger, so it lapses automatically in a deficient season.
2. A demand driven scheme is only as good as recorded demand: Persondays fall when work is not sought or not registered, and the same number can be read either way. Eg. Unmet demand under MGNREGS was persistently understated because applications were often not entered against a dated receipt.
   The Fix: Publish district wise work applications received alongside persondays generated, so unmet demand is visible in the same dataset.
3. Verification requirements exclude at the margin: Digital attendance and identity steps drop workers who cannot complete them, even where the rule says they are not disqualified. Eg. The National Mobile Monitoring System attendance requirement under MGNREGS cost workers their day’s record at sites with poor connectivity.
   The Fix: Provide a recorded offline fallback for attendance and verification at every worksite, with the physical muster roll valid on its own.
4. Wage payment delays suppress participation: Work is unattractive where wages arrive weeks after it is done, and the delay depends on fund release rather than on anything the worker controls. Eg. Compensation for delayed wages has been a standing complaint against MGNREGS despite the statutory timeline behind it.
   The Fix: Release delay compensation automatically from the same system that records the delay, without requiring a separate claim from the worker.
5. A funding dispute can suspend an entire State: Where the Centre withholds funds over compliance findings, the entitlement lapses for every worker in that State at once. Eg. Disbursements to West Bengal were frozen and the scheme produced no work there for years afterwards.
   The Fix: Route any withholding through a time bound adjudication carrying an interim wage payment channel, so a compliance dispute does not extinguish a statutory entitlement.

Conclusion

Two months are a thin basis for a verdict on a programme that has replaced a statutory guarantee covering most of rural India’s registered workforce. The unresolved tension is between a seasonal pause designed to leave farm labour undisturbed and a guarantee whose whole purpose is to be available when other work is not. The marker to watch is what the remaining States notify as their peak agricultural periods, since the length and the timing of those windows will decide how much of the year the guarantee actually covers.

Back2Basics: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005

1. Nature: It created a legal right to wage employment in rural areas, enforceable on demand rather than granted at administrative discretion.
2. Entitlement: It guaranteed 100 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteered for it.
3. Design safeguards: It required work within 15 days of demand, an unemployment allowance where work was not provided in time, and at least one third of beneficiaries to be women.
4. Administration: It was implemented by the Union Ministry of Rural Development through gram panchayats, with works selected in the gram sabha and wages paid into workers’ accounts.

Matching Previous Year Question

“Among the following who are eligible to benefit from the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”?”