Economists, workers’ groups and farm unions have demanded the withdrawal of a new rural jobs bill.
The proposed law would replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Critics say it converts a legal right to work into a discretionary government scheme.
Provisions restricting work during peak farming months have raised concern.
Nationwide protests are planned for 19 December across India.
Activists, farmers, workers’ groups and researchers have called for the immediate withdrawal of a proposed law to replace India’s flagship rural jobs programme, warning it would weaken the legal right to work and centralise power with the Union government.
At a press conference in Delhi on December 17, 2025, activists and researchers criticised the Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, which the government introduced in Parliament on December 15. The proposed legislation would replace the 2005 Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), an umbrella body of workers’ organisations, alleged that the bill was drafted without consultation with workers, trade unions or other stakeholders.
Addressing the media, economists, political leaders, NREGA workers, activists and agricultural union representatives said the bill diluted the right to work by converting it into a discretionary scheme administered by the government.
They also warned that a provision barring work during two peak agricultural months — effectively a 60-day “blackout period” — would weaken the bargaining power of women, landless labourers and other marginalised groups.
Kamla Devi, a widow from Beawar district in Rajasthan who has worked under NREGA for 18 years, said the programme was her only reliable source of income.
“I earn Rs 281 per day and if I get assured work for 100 days, that income helps me survive,” she said. “Stopping the scheme and imposing a 60-day blackout, with no husband or children to support me, will directly affect my survival. How will I survive without NREGA?”
Prabhat Patnaik, Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University and former vice-chair of the Kerala Planning Board, said the bill’s promise of 125 days of work was neither universal nor guaranteed.
“The government will have full authority over which areas get work and what kinds of work are sanctioned,” he said. “The Gram Sabha and local priorities will no longer matter.”
He added that the bill would allow the Centre to dictate norms to states, calling it “reprehensible”.
Under the proposed law, the central government would determine an annual state-wise “normative allocation” for employment, with any spending beyond that limit to be borne by state governments.
Mukesh Nirvasit of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and the Rajasthan Asangathit Mazdoor Union said the new provisions destroyed the demand-driven nature of NREGA.
“The guarantee becomes meaningless when neither the Centre nor the states are obliged to provide work,” he said. “A pre-determined allocation effectively caps the number of workdays per household.”
He added that under current budget levels, the Centre would struggle to provide even 50 days of work per household each year.
Annie Raja, vice-president of the National Federation of Indian Women and a workers’ rights activist, said MGNREGA had ensured that people in distress were not forced into hunger or migration by guaranteeing work within 15 days. “It also provides for unemployment allowance,” she said. “The new bill takes away these rights and shifts the burden of compensation to state governments.”
Nirvasit also said the bill undermined the democratic foundations of NREGA by sidelining Gram Panchayats and state governments. He highlighted provisions allowing longer working hours, potentially extending beyond eight hours to as many as 12.
“These conditions will discourage workers from taking up physically demanding work,” he said.
Economist Jayati Ghosh warned that the bill posed serious risks to India’s federal structure.
“It scraps the right to work and treats it as a favour from the Centre,” she said. “The same approach has been taken with the right to food and the right to information — turning rights into discretionary benefits.”
She argued that the expanded powers granted to the Centre could be used as a political tool against opposition-ruled states.
“We have already seen budgetary constraints imposed on states run by opposition parties, while responsibility is shifted onto them,” she said.
Economist and social activist Jean Drèze described NREGA as one of India’s most significant social achievements. “If there is any law because of which India can be called a Vishwaguru, it is NREGA,” he said.
Drèze said the new bill would give the Centre dangerous discretionary powers, citing past instances when work under NREGA was halted in West Bengal.
B Venkat of the All India Agricultural Workers Union warned that the proposed law could reverse gains made in rural wages.
“This bill risks creating a new bonded and feudal system in rural India,” he said.
Calling the proposed legislation a rollback of constitutional guarantees won through decades of struggle, the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha announced a nationwide day of action on December 19, 2025. Protests are planned at national, state, district and local levels, with organisers urging the government to withdraw the VB-G RAM G Bill.