The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) is an Act of the Parliament of India that provided a legal guarantee for the 'right to work' in rural areas. Originally enacted as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) on August 23, 2005, it was renamed MGNREGA on October 2, 2009. The Act was introduced to enhance livelihood security and address chronic poverty and unemployment in rural India.
The core mechanism of the Act guaranteed at least one hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteered for unskilled manual work. Under the Act, employment had to be provided within 15 days of application, failing which the applicant was entitled to an unemployment allowance. Work was generally to be provided within a 5 km radius of the applicant's residence, and at least one-third of the beneficiaries were mandated to be women. The scheme was implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development and executed at the local level by Gram Panchayats. Wages were linked to the statutory minimum wages under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
The MGNREGA was recently repealed and replaced by the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB–G RAM G) Act, 2025. The new Act increases the guaranteed employment from 100 days to 125 days per rural household. It also changes the funding structure from the Centre bearing 100% of unskilled wage costs to a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a 60:40 Centre-State sharing ratio for most states. The provision for unemployment allowance is retained, but the new Act introduces a statutory pause of up to 60 days during peak agricultural seasons when work will not be undertaken.