Twenty years ago, India enacted the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which guaranteed 100 days of manual employment to India’s rural poor. The scheme, introduced by the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2005, was hailed by international economists as a landmark poverty alleviation program, granting a legal right to employment and annually impacting the lives of 126 million people.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government virtually rang the death knell of the scheme, recasting it as Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act 2025 (G-RAM-G Act), or in other words, Developed India-Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission (Rural) Act.
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