On December 17, 2025, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a 30-year-old grassroots farmers’ and daily-wage workers’ solidarity movement, released a satirical YouTube video addressed as an open letter to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The video responded to the imminent passage of the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, commonly referred to as the VB-G RAM G Bill.
A day later, on December 18, 2025, amid fierce protests by Opposition MPs, who tore copies of the Bill and attempted to block its passage, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, praised the current government’s past “efforts” toward the welfare of India’s rural labour force.
Following his speech, the Bill was officially passed, marking what labour groups describe as an unprecedented dismantling of India’s flagship rural employment programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), enacted in 2005.
Shankar Singh, co-founder of MKSS from Dev Doongri village in Rajasthan, offered an in-depth assessment of the Bill’s implications in an interview with Maktoob. “First and foremost, they’ve changed the name to signal their control over the scheme’s very philosophy,” he said.
“Including elements like ‘Ram Ji’ clearly fits their broader ideological agenda and their wanton angst towards previous governments. The concern isn’t just semantics; the entire structure and accountability have been reshaped, and that too, silently.”
Under MNREGA, rural and urban labourers could demand work and receive a job card, and the government was legally obligated to provide employment within a stipulated time. The VB-G RAM G Bill replaces this demand-driven model with a supply-driven one: employment will be offered only if the government has the resources to do so.
Singh explained, “Earlier, if someone demanded work and it wasn’t provided, the government could be held accountable. Now, they can simply say, ‘We may or may not have the capacity to provide work.’ Obviously, this erodes the autonomy of workers.”
The new legislation also significantly alters fiscal responsibilities between the Centre and the states. MNREGA was largely funded by the Centre, typically in a 90:10 ratio. Under the VB-G RAM G framework, this shifts to 60:40, compelling states to shoulder a much larger share of the cost.
“For a 125-day programme, 75 days’ funding will be central and 50 days will be state-funded,” Singh said.
“Several states may lack the resources and have historically been responsible only for execution, not large-scale funding. As a result, the undeniable guarantee that lay at the heart of MNREGA effectively disappears.”
Another major provision is the seasonal halt clause, under which employment will not be provided during sowing and harvesting periods.
“What happens to landless labourers, daily-wage workers, or small farmers during these months?” Singh asked, describing the clause as a direct blow to labourers’ bargaining power and freedom to choose work.
The Bill also curtails the role of gram sabhas in planning and deciding village, level works. Under MNREGA, local bodies determined projects based on community needs.
“Now, all work, allocation of funds, and even the selection of states and projects will be decided by the Union government,” Singh said.
“Gram sabhas are reduced to merely approving or endorsing plans. How is it a ‘Viksit Bharat’ if rural people lose their decision-making power?”
Further, the Bill introduces a categorisation of labour cards into three groups, A, B, and C.
Category A includes so-called “affluent” panchayats near urban areas, where no work will be provided. Category B covers areas deemed eligible by the Centre, limiting local discretion. Category C prioritises historically marginalised groups such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, single women, and other minorities. While Category C offers some protection to disadvantaged communities, this rigid classification undermines the principle of universal entitlement, leaving poor workers in “affluent” areas without guaranteed employment.
MKSS and other labour activists have also raised serious concerns over the complete absence of consultations with unions, worker collectives, or rural communities before the Bill’s passage.
“Previous laws like MNREGA and the RTI Act of 2005 were the outcome of years, indeed decades, of protests and grassroots mobilisation by ordinary people demanding their rights,” Singh said.
“This Bill, passed almost overnight, ignores the voices of those it is supposed to serve.”
Singh also highlighted the ancillary benefits MNREGA enabled, particularly in Rajasthan, where completing 90 days of work entitled labourers to a construction worker card. That card, in turn, secured education scholarships for workers’ children, for instance, ₹9,000 per year for a school-going girl, with higher amounts for college and postgraduate education. Under the VB-G RAM G Bill, he warned, budget caps, seasonal exclusions, and tighter conditions will make it far harder for workers to complete the required days, jeopardising these crucial educational benefits.
Taken together, the VB-G RAM G Bill represents a sweeping departure from MNREGA’s demand-driven, rights-based framework, where the state could be held legally accountable for failure to provide work. By centralising control, decentralising funding responsibility, imposing seasonal restrictions, and extending daily working hours to 12—up from eight under MNREGA, the Bill, Singh argued, strips labourers of autonomy while insulating the government from accountability, even as it claims to increase the number of guaranteed workdays.
During a 16-day accountability march held across rural Rajasthan in November 2025, participants repeatedly pointed out that the government had failed to deliver even 50 days of work out of MNREGA’s earlier 100-day guarantee. In that context, the promise of 125 days under the new scheme appears largely illusory. “If funding, work allocation, and local decision-making remain so tightly restricted,” Singh concluded, “how are the poor supposed to trust the replacement of a rights-based law with a constraining and conditional scheme?”
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