India, Dec. 22 -- The Narendra Modi government is soon going to replace the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, namely MGNREGA, by a new legislative measure titled "Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G-RAM G) Bill, 2025." The new legislation aims to abolish the MGNREGA, enacted by Parliament in 2005.

Conceived not as charity but as a legal right to work, MNREGA fundamentally altered the relationship between the rural poor and the State, placing dignity, livelihood security and social justice at the heart of development policy.

At a time when rural distress, seasonal unemployment and agrarian uncertainty were pushing millions into chronic poverty, MNREGA offered a depen...