Why the Dismantling of MGNREGA Disproportionately Impacts Rural Women

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The replacement of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, with the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-GRAM-G), 2025, is being projected as a reform aimed at efficiency, rationalisation and alignment with agricultural cycles. In reality, this shift represents a fundamental rollback of one of India’s most significant rights-based employment programmes. 

For rural women, who are already confronting shrinking employment, rising indebtedness, pervasive harassment and the collapse of social security, this transition threatens to exacerbate precarity rather than alleviate it.

Findings from a recent three-state study done by the authors covering Maharashtra, Punjab and Telangana expose the fragility of women’s livelihoods in rural India.

The shift from MGNREGA to VB-G RAM G is not merely a change in name but also a change from a rights-based, demand-led entitlement into a budget-capped, supply-driven scheme.

Under MGNREGA, employment was legally guaranteed upon demand, with wages and most costs borne by the central government. VB-G RAM G, in contrast, limits employment to selected seasons, selected works, and selected regions, with a significantly higher financial burden placed on state governments through a 60:40 cost-sharing formula.

Also read: From Gandhi to VB-G RAM G: More than a Name Change, a Dismantling of the Right to Work

The government claims that VB-G RAM G will provide 125 days of employment, up from MGNREGA’s statutory 100 days. However, official data shows that MGNREGA has struggled in recent years to provide an average of 50 days of work per household. During COVID-19 nearly 72 lakh households (2020-21) were provided 100 days of employment but in the year 2024-25, it has come down to merely 41 lakh households which is also lower than 45 lakh households in the previous year. 

The number of households completing 100 days of work has steadily declined, from 10% in 2020-21 to just 7% in 2024-25, with only 1.5% achieving this threshold so far in the current year. So, to suggest that a more restricted, underfunded scheme will outperform MGNREGA is implausible. 

The study findings from the three states largely corroborate these data. In Maharashtra, for example, of the total number who held job cards for MGNREGA, only 9% said they received any work despite demanding it. In Telangana, the average days of work available for job card holders was 39 in Nalgonda district and 27 days in Medak district.

More worryingly,

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