New Delhi [India]. December 15 : The Central government will introduce the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevil Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with an employment guarantee scheme.
The Centre will introduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha, which, if passed, will reframe MGNREGA to transform rural development and provide statutory wage-employment guarantees to rural households.
The Bill envisions aligning rural development with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, focusing on empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation to build a prosperous and resilient rural Bharat.
Under the Bill, public works will be aggregated to form the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, prioritising water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related projects, and climate-resilient initiatives. It also aims to ensure adequate farm-labour availability during peak agricultural seasons and to institutionalise Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans for integrated, saturation-driven planning.
These plans will be linked with PM Gati Shakti, powered by geospatial systems digital public infrastructure, and district- and state-level planning mechanisms.
The Bill mandates a modern digital governance framework that incorporates biometric authentication, GPS and mobile-based monitoring, real-time dashboards, proactive disclosures and Artificial Intelligence tools for planning, auditing, and fraud risk mitigation.
The major definitions under the Bill include adult members (aged one year or older), households, Blocks, implementing agencies, unskilled manual work, and the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan.
The legislation also establishes Central and State Grameen Rozgar Guarantee Councils, as well as National and State-level Steering Committees to oversee implementation.
Highlighting the need for this strengthened framework, the Ball notes that over the past two decades, Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has provided guaranteed wage-employment, but rural transformations, including enhanced social security coverage, connectivity, housing, electrification, financial inclusion, and digital access, require an integrated and future-ready rural development strategy.
"To cater to the changing aspirations, stronger convergence is required to establish an integrated, Whole of Government rural development framework covering several complementary Government schemes. It is essential that rural infrastructure creation must transition from fragmented provisioning to a coherent and future-oriented approach, and it is also essential that resources are distributed in a fair manner to reduce disparities and promote inclusive growth across all rural areas of the country based on objective parameters," the Bill cites.
The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission aims to transition rural infrastructure creation from fragmented provisioning to a coherent, growth-oriented approach while ensuring equitable resource distribution to reduce disparities and promote inclusive development.
The legislation will come into effect on dates notified by the Central government in different states or areas. The Central Government and allows for phased implementation across MGNREGA, an employment scheme under the Ministry of Rural Development that provides at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled work. Any Indian citizen aged 18 or above and residing in a rural area can apply to this scheme. The applicant receives guaranteed employment within 15 days of the application date.