New Delhi: The Central government is set to introduce the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha, proposing to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) with a revamped statutory employment guarantee framework.
According to official sources, the proposed legislation aims to reframe rural employment and development in line with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, with a focus on empowerment, inclusive growth, convergence of schemes and saturation-based planning to build a resilient and prosperous rural India.
The Bill seeks to provide statutory wage-employment guarantees to rural households while integrating employment generation with the creation of durable rural infrastructure. It proposes aggregation of public works under a Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, prioritising water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-linked assets and climate-resilient initiatives. The framework is also designed to ensure adequate availability of farm labour during peak agricultural seasons.
A key feature of the proposed law is the institutionalisation of Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans to enable integrated and saturation-driven planning at the grassroots level. These plans will be linked with the PM Gati Shakti initiative and supported by geospatial systems, digital public infrastructure and coordinated district- and state-level planning mechanisms.
The Bill mandates a modern digital governance system incorporating biometric authentication, GPS and mobile-based monitoring, real-time dashboards, proactive disclosures and the use of artificial intelligence tools for planning, auditing and fraud risk mitigation.
It also clearly defines key terms such as adult members aged 18 years or above, households, blocks, implementing agencies, unskilled manual work and the Viksit Gram Panchayat Plan. To oversee implementation, the legislation proposes the establishment of Central and State Grameen Rozgar Guarantee Councils, along with National and State-level Steering Committees.
Explaining the rationale for the new framework, the Bill notes that while MGNREGA has provided guaranteed wage employment for over two decades, rural India has undergone significant transformation through expanded social security coverage, improved connectivity, housing, electrification, financial inclusion and digital access. These changes, it states, require an integrated and future-ready rural development strategy.
The proposed mission seeks to shift rural infrastructure creation from fragmented provisioning to a coherent, growth-oriented approach, while ensuring equitable distribution of resources to reduce regional disparities and promote inclusive development across rural areas based on objective parameters.
The legislation will come into force on dates notified by the Central government and allows for phased implementation across different states and regions.
MGNREGA, currently implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development, guarantees at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to rural households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work, with employment to be provided within 15 days of application.
