Several commentators and opposition leaders have sought to trivialize the reform undertaken for the rural employment guarantee scheme as a mere attempt to change the name and dispense with Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the title. This is of course as absurd as it can get. No government, specially not one which sees itself as pursuing the Mahatma’s principal goal of eliminating poverty from our midst, could contemplate such a change in the nomenclature.

It is also rather futile to focus the debate on a change in the name and not dwell on the substance of the change that is embedded in the Act which has introduced the Vikasit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar And Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB- G RAM G Act). In this piece we intend to address some of the fears, somewhat misplaced, about VB- G RAM G. First, the fear that by raising the share of the State governments to 40 per cent, the VB-G RAM G scheme will face fiscal constraints as States will not be able to contribute their share of the expenses. It should be noted that the Himalayan and North Eastern states (13 in all) will still receive 90 per cent of the total outlays from the Central Government.

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A higher share of the remaining States will ensure that state governments, now with skin in the game, will try harder to ensure a proper implementation of VB- G RAM G and eliminate the leakages that had come to characterize the earlier version. This attempt at making States an almost equal partner in the matter of providing a viable social security net to their own people is completely in sync with the federal nature of our polity. Second, the switch from a demand driven to a nominated expenditure format has evoked the criticism from the ‘bleeding heart group of civil society activists’ who........

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