New Delhi, The Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday said the VB-G RAM G Bill is the “most retrograde legislation” that betrays the rural worker and peasant households, robbing them of their statutory right to employment assured by rural employment law MGNREGA.
In a statement issued here, the SKM, an umbrella body of farmers’ unions, said that instead of repealing MGNREGA, the Union government should enact a similar law to address acute urban unemployment and make employment a statutory right.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Bill, 2025, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
It provides for 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work and talks about establishing a rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
“The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission Bill is the most retrograde legislation to betray the rural worker and peasant households, robbing their statutory right to employment that is assured by MGNREGA. This is not acceptable,” the SKM said.
“MNREGA was not just a rural employment guarantee Act. It was designed to be a demand-based programme to create rural development infrastructure relating to rural roads, irrigation, drinking water, animal husbandry, civic facilities, pro-people electrification, agro processing, etc, all that has been given a short shrift by making it a government investment-driven programme linked to the needs of big corporations,” it said.
The SKM, which was at the helm of the farmers’ protests of 2020-21 that forced the government to withdraw three farm laws, called upon farmers and workers to rally against the Bill, calling it an attack on the people by the ruling classes.
It also said women constitute a large part of the workers and the repeal of MGNREGA is a massive assault on them.
Similarly, this assault will deprive Dalits and Adivasis of their rights. The role of local self-development institutions will also be hampered by the repeal of MGNREGA, the farmers’ body claimed.
The SKM called on workers, farmers, youths, students, women, Dalits and Adivasis across India to come forward to protect and strengthen MGNREGA by demanding that the Act be amended to provide 200 days of work and a minimum wage for a dignified life, not below ₹700 per day, among other things.
The VB-G RAM G Bill is against the constitutional provision of federalism, it alleged.
“The state governments are facing an acute financial crisis due to the GST reform and cannot afford to bear 40 per cent of the cost of providing employment that will amount to thousands of crores,” it claimed.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
