Parliament passed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-GRAM-G Act) on 19 December 2025, replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) that had been the cornerstone of India's rural employment programme for two decades. The new legislation enhances the employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days of annual wage employment per rural household and introduces technology-driven compliance mechanisms including mandatory biometric authentication and geo-tagging of work sites.
Background
MGNREGA was enacted in 2005 as a demand-driven employment guarantee programme providing 100 days of unskilled manual work per year to every rural household. Over two decades, the scheme employed over 250 million workers annually and became the world's largest public works programme. However, the programme faced persistent challenges including delayed wage payments, ghost workers, measurement disputes, leakages in implementation, and limited linkage with productive infrastructure creation.
The government positioned the VB-GRAM-G Act as a modernisation of the employment guarantee framework rather than a departure from it. The new Act retains the demand-driven, rights-based architecture but integrates it with the digital public infrastructure ecosystem — including Aadhaar-based authentication, Jan Dhan bank accounts for direct benefit transfers, and the PM Gati Shakti national master plan for infrastructure coordination.
Key Provisions
The VB-GRAM-G Act 2025 contains the following principal elements:
Enhanced employment guarantee: The statutory guarantee increases from 100 to 125 days of wage employment per rural household per financial year. The additional 25 days are specifically linked to infrastructure development activities under the PM Gati Shakti framework.
Biometric authentication: All workers must authenticate their attendance through Aadhaar-enabled biometric devices at the work site. This replaces the paper-based muster roll system that was prone to manipulation and ghost entries.
Geo-tagging mandate: All work sites and completed assets must be geo-tagged with photographic evidence at prescribed intervals. This creates a verifiable digital record of works undertaken and their physical progress.
Integration with Gati Shakti: A defined percentage of works under the programme must be aligned with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, ensuring that rural employment expenditure contributes to strategic infrastructure development including rural roads, water bodies, and connectivity projects.
Digital wage disbursement: Wages must be disbursed exclusively through direct benefit transfer to Aadhaar-linked bank accounts within a prescribed timeline, with automatic penalty provisions for delays attributable to administrative failure.
Implications for Practitioners
The VB-GRAM-G Act creates new compliance and governance requirements at every level of implementation — from the district programme coordinator to the Gram Panchayat. Legal practitioners advising rural local bodies must update their understanding of the statutory framework, as the repeal of MGNREGA renders existing procedural guidance and circulars obsolete.
The biometric authentication and geo-tagging mandates raise practical challenges in areas with limited digital infrastructure or intermittent connectivity. Practitioners should anticipate disputes regarding exclusion of workers who cannot authenticate biometrically, which may give rise to Article 21 challenges similar to those seen in the Aadhaar litigation.
Labour rights organisations and legal aid practitioners should note that the enhanced 125-day guarantee and stricter wage payment timelines create stronger statutory entitlements for workers, potentially strengthening litigation positions in delayed payment disputes.