Besides labour organisations, all major opposition parties were also vehemently opposing the new law
NEW DELHI — The All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), a pan-India agri-labour body, has called on its units and activists across the country to actively participate in Special Gram Sabhas and mobilise public opinion against the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, popularly known as the VB-G RAM G Act.
The call came after the President’s assent to the new legislation and the subsequent issuance of a letter by the Department of Rural Development and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj directing the conduct of Gram Sabahs to build awareness about the provisions of the Act.
AIAWU has alleged that the government is attempting to promote what it describes as “false claims” surrounding the law. Besides labour organisations, all major opposition parties were also vehemently opposing the new law.
According to the union, the VB-G RAM G Act does not merely rename an existing scheme but completely dismantles and replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 — the country’s only centrally coordinated, demand-driven rural employment programme with a legal guarantee. The union leaders argued that while MGNREGA obligates the State to provide employment on demand, the new Act converts this statutory right into a discretionary scheme.
The union has announced plans to meet Panchayat Presidents and Sarpanches and submit resolutions opposing the VB-G RAM G Act, while demanding the restoration of MGNREGA in its original form.
They have further criticised the BJP-led Union government for what it terms a systematic weakening of MGNREGA since 2014. While acknowledging that implementation challenges existed earlier, the union claims these issues were projected as flaws in the Act itself. Measures such as biometric verification, the Aadhaar-Based Payment System and double attendance requirements, it said, have resulted in the exclusion of workers and the deletion of lakhs of job cards in recent years.
Instead of addressing these implementation gaps, the union alleges, the government has launched a “full-fledged attack” on rural and agricultural workers by introducing a new law that caps employment, limits budgetary allocations, and shifts the financial and administrative burden to state governments without adequate funding.
At a time of growing rural distress, AIAWU has appealed to rural workers, peasants, youth and students to unite in defence of MGNREGA, describing it as a “hard-earned constitutional guarantee to employment in rural India.”
The appeal has been jointly issued by AIAWU President A Vijayaraghavan and General Secretary B Venkat.
