New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) The MGNREGS contributed to ensuring income support for rural households over the past two decades, but its further strengthening had become necessary in view of the major socio-economic transformation in rural areas, the Rural Development Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan told the House that the last impact assessment of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was carried out by the NITI Aayog in 2019-20, which highlighted that while the scheme had enhanced rural livelihood security, it continued to face significant operational and structural challenges.
“To overcome problems such as weak grievance redressal mechanisms and poor asset maintenance, the report recommended strengthening social audits, improving beneficiary identification, ensuring inclusion of vulnerable groups and reducing regional disparities in development. To modernise IT governance, it also suggested upgrading rural infrastructure and transitioning to intuitive, mobile-based applications that support real-time, localised data entry,” the MoS said.
The report also advocated for the development of robust GIS technology for data-driven planning, he added.
“Over the past two decades, the MGNREGS has contributed to providing guaranteed wage employment to rural households and ensuring income support,” he said.
“However, further strengthening had become necessary in view of the major socio-economic transformation in rural areas driven by the widespread reach of social security interventions and saturation-oriented implementation of flagship government schemes,” Paswan said.
He further said rural connectivity, housing, electrification, financial inclusion and digital access have expanded, the workforce has diversified and aspirations have shifted towards higher incomes, growth-oriented infrastructure, sustainable livelihoods and greater climate resilience.
The MoS said deeper structural issues persisted, and monitoring in several states revealed gaps, including work not being done on the ground, expenditure not matching physical progress, the use of machines in labour-intensive work, and frequent bypassing of digital attendance systems.
“Since the overall architecture of MGNREGA had reached its limits, it warranted reassessment in light of evolving rural realities,” he said.
Against this backdrop, he said, the requirement for stronger convergence was felt to establish an integrated, whole-of-government rural development framework covering several complementary government schemes.
“Additionally, it was felt essential that rural infrastructure creation must transition from fragmented provisioning to a coherent and future-oriented approach, which also necessitated that resources are distributed in a fair manner to reduce disparities and promote inclusive growth across all rural areas of the country based on objective parameters,” he said, adding that the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025 was enacted for this reason.
Paswan said the Act is a comprehensive statutory overhaul of MGNREGS, which enhances the legal guarantee from 100 days to 125 days of wage employment, aligns rural employment with the long-term vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 and strengthens accountability, infrastructure outcomes and income security.
“This Act builds on past improvements while addressing the shortcomings of earlier rural employment programmes through a modern, accountable and infrastructure-focused framework,” he said.
Activists and opposition parties have criticised the VB-G RAM G scheme, alleging that it weakens the rights-based framework of the MGNREGA, may dilute the legal guarantee of work, and have also alleged that the new scheme is more centralised than the UPA-era scheme, which was drafted after widespread consultations.
The government has, meanwhile, claimed that the new Act will further strengthen the rural employment guarantee by providing 125 days of work, compared to 100 days provided under MGNREGA. PTI AO PRK PRK
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