MGNREGA Pioneer Maharashtra Ponders Uncertain Future As VB-G-RAM-G Era Kicks In

Boards with faded letters, yellowed surfaces, and peeling paint- carrying Mahatma Gandhi’s photo and project details of MGNREGA across villages will soon be history. From April 2026, the implementation of the new VB-G-RAM-G will begin. 

Nisha Shilam, 20, migrant woman belonging to Katkari tribe was working at a brick kiln in Natambi village of Bhor Taluka, 50 km away from Pune.  Shilam’s nine-month-old daughter is playing at a brick kiln in scorching heat. Shilam hardly gets any time to breastfeed her daughter. Migrating from Mahad taluka in Raigad, Shilim is employed as a brick kiln worker with wages Rs 200 a day, far below than MGNREGA wages of Rs. 312 for unskilled workers in Maharashtra. 

Shilim and her colleague Ujjwala Waghmare, 30, another katkari woman originally hails from Mahad taluka of Raigad; are unaware of MGNREGA and job cards. Mahad is the constituency of Bharat Gogawale, cabinet minister for employment guarantee scheme popularly known as Rojgar Hami Yojana in Maharashtra. 

Both Shilim and Waghmare, who come from Nandavi village in Mahad taluka, said they had never heard of guaranteed work under MGNREGA, raising a sharp question: who will actually receive the promised 125 days of employment under the new Act? Will diversity and inclusion of the most marginalised be assured with the 125 days work, for those already excluded from MGNREGA? 

Employment provided to workers under MGNREGA from the SC, ST categories has been significantly low in Maharashtra and India. For the financial year 2025-2026, the participation of the ST category is 16.51 % followed by 7.02 % of SC workers in Maharashtra, according to the MIS. 

However, MGNREGA used to provide constitutional guarantees of the right to work. If workers were not provided employment within 15 days of demand, they were entitled to receive unemployment allowance. Any worker could demand work any time. Under the new act, without any scope for supplementary demand of work by Grampanchayat, those who seek new jobs will be integrated in existing projects. This will affect the ‘guaranteed’ number of days of the workers. This is a common concern voiced by the Rojgar sevaks Outlook interviewed in Pune and Raigad districts of Maharashtra.  

“MGNREGA significantly empowered workers to demand competitive wages in other industries in comparison with MGNREGA wages for unskilled workers. Dismantling MGNREGA is destroying workers' wage bargaining power in the labour market,” says Ajit Abhyankar, CITU leader based in Pune. 

The Katkari women migrant workers Outlook interviewed at a brick kiln in Natambi village were shocked to know that Rs 312 is the daily wage they could have earned under MGNREGA. Although impoverished families of Shilim and Waghmare knew that Rs 200 daily wage given by the brick kiln contractor is low, they didn’t know their bargaining capacity could reach to Rs 312 at par with MGNREGA wages in Maharashtra.   

Government stakeholders such as Block development officers and Assistant programme Officers, Outlook interviewed from Pune and Raigad refused to comment on record. However, they maintained that all the works under MGNREGA have continued. However we didn’t find any active MGNREGA work site at the Kari, Gavadi, Natambi villages in Bhor Taluka of Pune and Manjheri, Berwadi, Dhalkathi villages of Mahad Taluka in Raigad district. 

 There is a big banner with the photo of minister of employment guarantee Bharat Gogawale at Berwadi. But there is no active MGNREGA work site in the village. The only work that is underway in this village is installation of underground pipelines for providing tap water under Jal Jeevan Mission. 

The demand for jobs through job cards under MGNREGA has been showing a steady increase in Maharashtra between 2020 to 2025, according to the MIS. However, not everybody has been provided employment for 100 days. 

Prakash Pol, BDO at Charmoshi taluka in Gadchiroli, told Outlook, “MGNREGA was not only crucial for providing employment to the most marginalised but has been a key to sustainable rural development. It aimed to create assets. Many villages in Maharashtra have created assets through water conservation projects, forestation, built aanganwadis, and developed government schools that strengthened education.”  

While commenting on the transition from MGNREGA to VB-G-RAM-G, Pol adds, “There are no significant changes so far in the implementation process of the new rozgar guarantee scheme, but the administration, the state government stakeholders including Panchayat Samiti and Gram Panchayats are having better co-ordination, communications for adopting a new law. Awareness programmes have been planned and Master training will take place in the next few months.”  

The Perspective Shifts 

The variety of works being undertaken for MGNREGA has two main types. One is community projects for village development and another is personal subsidy based schemes provided for individuals and households such as Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana. Under the central subsidised house scheme, lower income families and SC, ST households get unskilled labour wage component from MGNREGA to build a house. These households are given wages of construction labour upto Rs 28,000. Apart from this there are several schemes benefiting individuals such as digging wells, building cow-shed etc, where labour cost is provided to individuals who appoint workers under MGNREGA. 

“The demand for work proposals that offer subsidies to individuals and households has increased in the last five years than development projects for villages like forestation, building roads etc. and I have to cater to all the demands raised by villagers. Therefore, village development projects have been significantly reduced in my village.” said Satish Dhebe, sarpanch of Kari village in Bhor taluka of Pune. 

Dhebe believes this is the perspective shift towards MGNREGA in the past few years. He talks about a few challenges. “For the work orders that were sanctioned and work completed, labourers are waiting for their wages to be paid. The r Kari grampanchayat road was built under MGNREGA in 2022. Workers who built the road were not paid wages for two years.”

Delayed payments of wages discourage labourers from demanding work under MGNREGA and amounts to migration.” 

The Maharashtra rural employment guarantee scheme began in 1977, years before it became the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 2005. The scheme was envisioned by V.S.Page in Maharashtra to combat the economic crisis after the infamous drought of 1972 in the state. The scheme helped thousands of landless households to make ends meet during scarcity of jobs and ensured basic food security. 

Later, when the MGNREGA came into force, it helped rural households, landless and often poor for elimination of food scarcity, reducing malnutrition and reduced migration according to various research papers and critical studies. The constitutional guarantees of right to work promised under MNREGA further complimented National food security act (NFSA) 2013. 

 How MGNREGA saved millions during the pandemic 

During the Covid pandemic in 2020, reverse migration was at its peak in rural India. It was MGNREGA that sustained the rural poor. Budget allocation for the employment guarantee scheme was increased from around Rs.80,000 crores to 1,00,000 crores, but later restored to the old allocations pattern.  During the pandemic year, the Chikhaldara block in Amravati district alone disbursed Rs 76 crore as wages to MGNREGA workers. 

Workers from Chikhaldara returned to their villages in 2020, walking thousands kilometers without food and water. “There was no time to even assess the situation of workers. It was the worst devastation of humankind I saw during my first posting at Chikhaldara. But a structure of MGNREGA built on ground for many years by all the rural stakeholders came as a great rescue. Cutting the red tape, I and my colleagues in administration approved all the work orders immediately with whatever facilities available ensuring Covid protocols. We also received great support from higher authorities. All workers were provided employment and masks, sanitisers from Gram Panchayat funds. MGNREGA could survive thousands in my block from dying.” Prakash Pol former BDO at Chikhaldara during 2020 told Outlook. Pol is currently working in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. 

The wider scope with statutory provisions that MGNREGA had to combat pandemic-like unprecedented situations, natural calamities are now being completely whitewashed according to various experts, and stakeholders. 

A rojgar sevak in one of the villages of Bhor Taluka in Pune told Outlook, “I am dealing with questions; what will I do, when a situation like Covid-pandemic arises, demand for jobs will suddenly spike, people will need jobs just to be alive. With the new system, we won’t be able to demand supplementary projects once the five year work plan and labour budget is approved. Big scale natural disasters like floods, drought etc, will snatch away means of work from plan. If people come to me in such situations demanding work, I will have to integrate them in existing projects. It's like sharing one roti among ten hungry people.” a Rojgar sevak who doesn’t wish to be named, told Outlook. 

What VB-G-RAM-G promises  

The current structure under VB-G-RAM-G Act however promises a minimum 125 days of work, it also halts the employment for 60 days during harvest season. In Maharashtra the average work days allocated to households under MGNREGA are lower than 50 days. Despite collective efforts to reform the implementation initiated by Nand Kumar, additional chief secretary of the employment guarantee department. How the new 125 work days will be ensured is a question asked by multiple sarpanchs, rojgar sevaks and few workers who work under MGNREGA. 

The new act also drew criticism from labour unions, activists and development economists for its normative funding, fiscal burdens on the state governments and dismantling of federal structure. In the earlier MGNREGA, gram panchayat, Panchayati Raj system had power, the new structure only those work proposals will get funding which are approved. 

Although the real time implementation will take place from April 2026, the proper budgetary allocations for employment under the new Act is likely to begin in 2027-2028.  

Pre-budget meetings are important for debate and scrutiny about estimated allocations of funds and expenditure analysis. In 2026, there is almost no scope to debate and scrutinise the budget allocations for employment under the new law, as the process of preparing the budget starts approximately six months prior to the budget session for better planning and scrutiny. The Union budget session for 2026-2027 starts on February 1 and will conclude on April 2, 2026, Minister of parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju has announced.