The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Bill 2025 is being projected as a bold reform that modernises rural employment and aligns it with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. In reality, it represents the final step in a long process of dismantling one of the most important rights based laws in India. By repealing MGNREGA and replacing it with a centrally controlled scheme, the Bill does not strengthen rural livelihoods, It dismantles the very idea that rural workers have a legal right to demand work from the State.
MGNREGA was never just a welfare programme. It was a law rooted in the Constitution, recognising the right to work as an extension of the right to life. For millions of landless workers, women, Dalits and Adivasis, it created a rare space where the poorest citizen could make a legal claim on the State, demand employment with dignity, and receive time bound wages close to home. It also acted as a floor for rural wages, a check on exploitation, and a critical buffer during droughts, agrarian crises and economic shocks such as the Covid pandemic. The proposed Bill dismantles this architecture piece by piece.
