Dr. V. Suresh Babu, Head Centre for Wage Employment and Livelihoods at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad said that the shift from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 to the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G) Act, 2025 is basically the shift from labor oriented employment to entrepreneurship and also employment from 100 days to 125 days guarantee, while speaking in the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad, organized on 17th March, 2026.
Dr. Suresh Babu has critically analyzed the two decades of experiences in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. He said that during its phase employment never exceeded more than 52 days in a financial year, though there is provision for 100 days employment. But at the same time, Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has played a crucial role during the drought and crisis period like Corona in providing the employment for the reverse migrant labor and the rural local bodies are revitalized for the micro-level planning with the participation of the community and direct flow of the budget. Over a period of time, it is found that there has been saturation of the labor-oriented employment in the irrigated and urbanizing areas and demand was declined. There was also an issue of the accountability and labor shortage during the peak agricultural season. Therefore, there is a criticism from the rich farmers in the rural areas that it has been drastically effecting the agricultural sector. That is why the priority of employment is shifted from the labor intensive to the business centric. The guidelines for the implementation of Vikshit Bharat- G RAM G will be available soon, however, the training of the administrative machinery, which involved in the implementation process is in the process.
The session is presided over by Prof. K Y Ratnam, Head, Department of Political Science. The coordinator of the lecture Prof. E. Venkatesu observed that there is a policy shift from the rights-based approach to union and state collaboration in generating the employment. He also shared his and Dr. Suresh Babe’s experiences at the time of designing the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, capacity building for the implementing agency and conducting of the social audit from 2004-2005 academic year on wards as faculty members of NIRDPR.
Report prepared by Vivek Raj