5 min learnNew DelhiUp to date: Aug 10, 2026 09:32 AM IST
Employment technology below the federal government’s revamped rural job assure programme noticed a pointy decline, registering a fall of 49.94 per cent year-on-year in July, as per official information. The drop got here as the federal government transitioned from the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi Nationwide Rural Employment Assure Scheme (MGNREGS) to the newly-launched Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, from July 1 this yr.
Official information as on August 9 exhibits that solely 7.67 crore person-days had been generated below the VB-G RAM G scheme in July 2026 — which is 49.94 per cent decrease as in comparison with 15.33 crore person-days generated below the MG-NREGS in the identical month final yr.
Individual-day is a unit of measurement based mostly on a really perfect quantity of labor achieved by an individual in a single working day.
Whereas the VB-G RAM G dashboard exhibits 7.67 crore person-days in July, the Ministry of Rural Growth stated that round 9 crore person-days had been generated throughout the first month of implementation of the scheme.
The variety of households who availed the agricultural job assure scheme got here down by 51.45 per cent, to 68.94 lakh, in July this yr below the VB-G RAM G scheme. Below MGNREGS, the determine stood at 1.42 crore in the identical month final yr.
Supply: Scheme dashboards
The variety of households and person-days below the agricultural jobs scheme have really been the bottom within the final 5 years. At 0.68 crore, the typical variety of households that availed of the VB-G RAM G scheme is lower than 40% of the typical 1.72 crore households over the earlier 4 years. Equally, this July’s person-days are additionally simply 35% of 21.56 crore common person-days over the earlier 4 years.
In March 2025, 17.56 crore person-days had been generated below NREGS — which was 0.70% decrease than 17.69 crore person-days in March 2024. This year-on-year decline within the month-to-month determine of employment generated below NREGS continued until June 2026, the final month of the UPA-era scheme.
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The July slide in employment technology below VB-G RAM G is important in view of the erratic monsoon. As per the India Meteorological Division (IMD), 50 per cent of the nation’s 741 districts have reported deficit-to-serious-deficit rainfall from June 1 to August 3. In such a state of affairs, the agricultural job assure scheme turns into a fallback possibility for unskilled agricultural labourers.
Affect on demand
Though the brand new rural job assure scheme provides greater wages and extra days of labor, employment technology has slowed signi- ficantly. This would possibly affect rural demand — essential for lifting the financial system. Because of the erratic monsoon, Kharif crop space protection has fallen too, posing a problem to total agricultural output.
Based on the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, space protection below kharif crop was reported at 894.22 lakh hectare as on July 31, 2026 — which was 26.50 lakh hectare as in comparison with 920.72 lakh hectares within the corresponding interval final yr.
Sources stated that one of many causes for drop in employment technology could also be due to a pause within the scheme throughout the Kharif sowing season. Nevertheless, there isn’t any information obtainable about pauses within the sowing season.
Responding to an e mail from The Indian Categorical, an official with the Ministry of Rural Growth stated, “VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 has been applied efficiently throughout all rural areas of the nation with impact from July 1, 2026. The transition from MGNREGA to VB–G RAM G has been clean, seamless and technology-enabled, with all States/UTs notifying their respective schemes and the entire administrative and digital ecosystem being operationalised earlier than graduation of the programme from day one.”
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“To facilitate uninterrupted implementation, the Central Authorities has supplied a report Budget estimate of ₹95,692 crore for FY 2026–27, the very best ever for any rural employment programme,” the official stated.
“Accordingly, the programme is being applied successfully nationwide. Greater than 98% of rural households demanding employment have been supplied work. In the course of the first month of implementation, round 9 crore person-days have been generated, with attendance being captured by way of the NMMS utilizing face authentication along with the prescribed exception-handling mechanism in real circumstances. Greater than 1.33 crore rural employees have been supplied employment as per their calls for for employment and works are being executed by way of greater than 9 lakh energetic worksites, guaranteeing satisfactory availability of employment alternatives,” the official stated.
The official added that round 63% of the entire person-days generated up to now have been contributed by girls, considerably exceeding the statutory requirement of one-third participation.
“All provisions of the VB-G RAM G Act have come into drive with impact from July 1, 2026, together with the statutory provision referring to the notified peak sowing and harvesting season, which is being applied by the states in accordance with native agro-climatic circumstances. The ministry is constantly monitoring implementation by way of Space Officer visits, common evaluation conferences, technology-enabled dashboards and field-level suggestions,” the official stated.
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The VB-G RAM G scheme offers for assure of 125 days wage employment to rural households throughout a monetary yr, up from 100 below the NREGS. It additionally has a provision of pause in employment assure for “a complete interval aggregating to 60 days in a monetary yr, masking the height agricultural seasons of sowing and harvesting” throughout which work is not going to be undertaken.
