Overview
- The VB-G RAM G Act, passed in December 2025, replaces MGNREGA and raises the legal guarantee to 125 days of work with weekly or fortnightly wage payments, delay compensation, and a statutory unemployment allowance.
- The law permits up to a 60-day pause in public works during peak sowing or harvest periods, a change repeatedly highlighted by chief ministers as a way to ease farm labour shortages.
- Funding shifts to a shared model of 60:40 between the Centre and most states, with 90:10 for northeastern states and full central funding for some Union Territories, alongside tighter tech-led monitoring and twice-yearly social audits.
- BJP leaders across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Nagaland defended the reforms and launched awareness drives, with Punjab BJP beginning a statewide campaign to promote the law.
- Activists and opposition figures, including Jean Drèze and Jharkhand NREGA Watch, argue the Act weakens the guarantee through a potential ‘switch-off’ clause, fixed state allocations, and heavy digitisation; Congress in Punjab plans a protest campaign, while some workers in Chhattisgarh welcomed the 125-day guarantee and faster payments.