The "Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission, Gramin", or the VB-G RAM Act, 2025, replaces MGNREGA, the scheme that defined rural India's safety net since 2005. Under the new law, the national average wage has increased from 298.8 per day under MGNREGA to 327.4 per day. That is a rise of 28.6, or over 10 per cent.
More significant is the floor. Prior to the notification on Wednesday, wage rates in several states were below 300, with the lowest notified wage being 241 per day. That gap is now closed. A base wage of 300 per day has been fixed. Ensuring no state falls below that threshold. The wage map shows states with historically depressed rural wages get the steepest hikes, between 15 and 25 per cent. Those states include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
On the other end, already high-wage states have pushed further up. Haryana now pays 409, Goa 406, Kerala 401, and Sikkim's high-altitude panchayats 450. Beyond wages, the structural shift is bigger. The act guarantees up to 125 days of waged employment per household. Up from 100 days under the previous MGNREGA.
An interim allocation of 95,692 crore, or about $10 billion, has gone to the states to ensure a smooth transition and uninterrupted payments. The economic logic is: Pump money into the lowest rungs of the rural wage ladder, and lift consumption in regions that need it most.
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