// Scheme sheet
- Responsible ministry / authority
- Ministry of Rural Development
- Benefit type
- Employment / wages
- Coverage
- Central + state cost-share
- Who it is for — beneficiary group
- Adult members of rural households who volunteer for unskilled manual work
- What the beneficiary receives
- A statutory guarantee of 125 days of paid unskilled work per rural household per financial year, at the notified state wage. The national average notified wage rose from ₹298.8 to ₹327.4 a day, with a floor of ₹300.
- Eligibility
- Any adult member of a rural household who applies for work and is willing to do unskilled manual labour.
- Rules, limitations & exceptions
- Work must be provided within 15 days of demand or an unemployment allowance is payable. Funding is shared 60:40 between Centre and state for most states, 90:10 for north-eastern and Himalayan states and Jammu & Kashmir, and borne fully by the Centre for Union Territories without a legislature. The Centre sets a normative allocation and any overspend falls on the state — a change several states, including Punjab, Karnataka and Telangana, have objected to. States may notify up to 60 days a year as a pause covering peak sowing and harvesting, during which works are not undertaken. Existing e-KYC-verified MGNREGA job cards stay valid until Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Cards are issued.
- Required documents
- Job card, Aadhaar, bank/post-office account for wage credit.
- How to apply
- Apply for a job card at the gram panchayat; submit a written or online work request and receive a dated receipt.
- Official portal
- https://nrega.nic.in/
- Helpline / contact
- 1800-180-7222 (legacy MGNREGA line; a VB-G RAM G helpline has not been published)
- Last verified
- 13 Sep 2026
The Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 replaced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 — MGNREGA — with effect from 1 July 2026. MGNREGA had run for two decades as a demand-driven guarantee: any rural household could ask for work and the state was obliged to provide it. The new Act keeps a statutory guarantee but changes its size and, more significantly, how it is paid for. The entitlement rises from 100 to 125 days a year, and the wage floor is now ₹300 a day. The funding model is the substantive change: MGNREGA’s unskilled wages were met entirely by the Centre, whereas VB-G RAM G is a centrally sponsored scheme shared 60:40 with most states.