The Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar & Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-GRAM G) Act, 2025 is an Indian social welfare Act that establishes a statutory guarantee of wage employment for rural households. The Act was created to align rural employment with the long-term national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047 and to transform the employment guarantee from a welfare-centric program into a productivity-driven framework. It originated to address the evolving nature of rural employment needs, concerns over the quality of assets created under the previous law, and to integrate employment generation with infrastructure creation. The Act was passed by the Parliament of India on December 18-19, 2025, and received the President's assent on December 21, 2025.
The VB-GRAM G Act, 2025 works by guaranteeing 125 days of wage employment per financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work, an increase from the previous 100-day entitlement. A key mechanism is the linking of wage employment directly with the creation of durable rural infrastructure across four priority areas: water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure, and works to mitigate extreme weather events. All works must be drawn from the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans and integrated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack. If work is not provided within fifteen days of application, the household becomes eligible for a daily unemployment allowance. The Act also includes a provision for an aggregated 60-day no-work period to ensure the availability of farm labour during peak agricultural seasons.
The VB-GRAM G Act, 2025 directly connects to and replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, which stands repealed with the commencement of the new Act. The new legislation shifts the funding structure to a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a shared financial responsibility between the Union and State governments, moving away from the previous model where the Centre bore 100% of the unskilled wage bill. The Act also connects to the national spatial planning system, PM Gati-Shakti, for the integration of local development plans. The core concept of a statutory guarantee for the 'right to work' remains the same, but the guarantee is enhanced to 125 days, and the focus is shifted to productive asset creation and a more structured planning mechanism.