The Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB–G RAM G Act, 2025) is an Indian social welfare legislation that aims to guarantee the 'right to work' in rural areas. It is a statutory Act passed by the Parliament of India on December 18–19, 2025, and assented to on December 21, 2025. The Act was introduced by the Minister of Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, on December 16, 2025, to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA). The origin of the Act lies in the need for a revised legislative framework to align rural employment guarantees with contemporary development priorities and the long-term national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.
The VB–G RAM G Act, 2025 represents a comprehensive statutory overhaul of MGNREGA. Its key mechanism is the statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, which is an increase from the 100-day entitlement under MGNREGA. The Act also introduces a provision for an aggregated 60-day no-work period, to be announced in advance by State Governments, to ensure the availability of agricultural labour during peak sowing and harvesting seasons. The Act retains the provision that if work is not provided within 15 days of seeking it, the State Government must pay an unemployment allowance.
A significant change is the shift in the funding pattern: the scheme is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a 60:40 Centre–State cost-sharing ratio for most states, and a 90:10 ratio for North-Eastern and Himalayan states. This replaces the MGNREGA structure where the Centre bore 100% of the wage bill for unskilled manual work. The Act connects to the broader concept of Viksit Bharat @2047 by linking wage employment with the creation of durable rural infrastructure across four priority areas. It also strengthens decentralized planning through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans and establishes a National Level Steering Committee for high-level oversight and normative allocation recommendations. The VB–G RAM G Act, 2025 is set to come into force from July 1, 2026, replacing the MGNREGA entirely.