The VB-G RAM G Act 2025 fixes structural gaps, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• The President has approved the Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-G RAM G Act), increasing guaranteed wage employment to 125 days.
• The Act aims to strengthen rural livelihoods through empowerment, convergence, and saturation-based delivery.
• The Act retains the statutory and justiciable character of the employment guarantee while strengthening its enforceability.
• Budgetary allocations increased from ₹33,000 crore in 2013-14 to ₹86,000 crore in 2024-25.
• The central government’s contribution is increasing from ₹86,000 crore to nearly ₹95,000 crore.

Detailed Insights:

• The VB-G RAM G Act addresses structural weaknesses in the previous framework, such as episodic employment and fragmented asset creation.
• The Act ensures demand for work is addressed through advance, participatory village-level planning, ensuring work availability.
• Gram Panchayats remain the primary planning and implementing authorities, with Gram Sabhas retaining approval powers over local plans.
• The Act institutionalizes decentralized planning as a structured and participatory process, aggregating plans at various levels for coordination.
• The funding model follows a 60:40 structure for centrally sponsored schemes, with a 90:10 ratio for northeastern, Himalayan States, and Jammu and Kashmir.
• States can notify periods up to 60 days in a financial year when works shall not be undertaken, based on agro-climatic conditions.
• The Act balances rule-based allocation with contextual flexibility, allowing States to recommend special relaxations during natural disasters.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Gram Panchayat: A village-level local self-government institution in India.
• Gram Sabha: A body consisting of all adults residing in a village or a group of villages.
• Cooperative Federalism: A system where the center and states cooperate in addressing common issues.