Centre likely to scrap MGNREGA, bring new rural employment law

The Centre is likely to scrap the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which guarantees 100 days of wage employment to rural households every year. A bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament.

The government may bring a new law – the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin). The government circulated the Bill among the members of the Lok Sabha on Monday.

According to a copy, the bill is aimed at establishing a "rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, by providing a statutory guarantee of one hundred and twenty-five days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work; to promote empowerment, growth, convergence and saturation for a prosperous and resilient rural Bharat."

The MGNREGA programme, which was enacted in 2005 and rolled out from 2006, guarantees up to 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work. It was designed as a rights‑based, demand‑driven programme, meaning adults can demand work and the state is legally obliged to provide it within 15 days or pay unemployment allowance.​

A budget of Rs 86,000 crore was allocated for MGNREGA in FY 2025–26, the highest since the scheme's inception. In the Current FY 2025-26, an amount of Rs 45,783 crore had been released under the scheme, the Centre informed in August this year. By FY 2024–25, women's participation in the programme had reached 58.15%.