Viksit Bharat Bill: How 125-Day Job Guarantee Transforms Rural India

Aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the proposed law seeks to modernise rural wage employment by linking it with durable infrastructure creation, climate resilience and predictable funding.

The Bill enhances the statutory employment guarantee from 100 days under MGNREGA to 125 days per rural household annually, strengthening income security for rural labourers.

At the same time, it introduces an aggregated 60-day pause window during peak sowing and harvesting seasons to ensure the availability of agricultural labour, balancing the interests of farmers and workers.

A key shift under the new framework is the integration of wage employment with long-term asset creation across four clearly defined priority areas: water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure and special works for mitigating extreme weather events.

All assets created will be mapped and aggregated under the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, enabling coordinated planning and monitoring at the national level.

The Bill also strengthens decentralised planning through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans, which will be prepared locally but digitally integrated with national platforms such as PM Gati Shakti.

Panchayati Raj Institutions will play a central role in execution, with Gram Panchayats mandated to implement at least 50 per cent of works in value terms.

Financially, the programme transitions from a central sector scheme to a centrally sponsored structure, introducing normative funding to improve predictability and accountability.

The standard cost-sharing ratio will be 60:40 between the Centre and states, 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan states, and full central funding for Union Territories without legislatures. The estimated annual outlay is Rs 1.51 lakh crore, including a central share of about Rs 95,692 crore.

To address long-standing implementation challenges, the Bill raises the administrative expenditure ceiling from 6 per cent to 9 per cent, enabling better staffing, training and technical capacity at the field level.

It also strengthens transparency through mandatory social audits, AI-based monitoring, biometric authentication, real-time dashboards and GPS-enabled tracking of work.

Importantly, the unemployment allowance provision has been retained and strengthened. If work is not provided within 15 days of demand, states will be liable to pay a daily unemployment allowance, reinforcing the legal guarantee.

- IANS