The principal concern with the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which is set to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, lies with the intentionally poor fiscal design. Under the latter, the Centre provides the entire money for wage payment and up to 75% of the cost of material; the VB-G RAM G Bill seeks to trim the Central share and make states — except those in the Northeast and the Himalayan region — bear 40% of the cost of wages and material. The financial health of many of the states is suspect and the tightening of the Central purse would disincentivise states from pursuing this rural welfare programme in earnest. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, to cite one example, underperformed because of the financial strain put on states. But the Centre seems intent on replicating the same error in the case of VB-G RAM G Bill. That is not the only bad news. The VB-G RAM G Bill also seeks to be dourly centralised, affixing the amounts states are set to receive in a financial year in advance, stripping the programme of being flexible with the funding, a key element in an initiative that is driven by demand. Additionally, any expenditure incurred by a state over its allocation will have to be met from its own coffers. The extensive adoption of technological applications in the new programme, its potential to weed out leakages and corruption notwithstanding, could pose challenges to countless rural agrarian workers not well-versed with the digital landscape. Ironically, the MGNREGA, which had a relatively better protective architecture when it came to beneficiaries, including women and underprivileged communities, is now being kicked out despite its yeoman service to the government especially during the disastrous years of Covid.
The VB-G RAM G Bill brings in its wake another significant but understated transformation. This concerns the torpedoing of social security as a right of the people by, ironically, an elected government. That collective right is being substituted with a programme that is dependent on State largesse. Given the whimsical nature of State patronage in India, the future of this alternative welfare edifice for rural India does not seem quite assured. Will an electoral backlash crystallise as a consequence?