VB-G RAM G: Rural Employment Falls Nearly 50% In First Month Of New Scheme
News india VB-G RAM G: Rural Employment Falls Nearly 50% In First Month Of New Scheme VB-G RAM G: Rural Employment Falls Nearly 50% In
News india VB-G RAM G: Rural Employment Falls Nearly 50% In First Month Of New Scheme VB-G RAM G: Rural Employment Falls Nearly 50% In First Month Of New Scheme Published By, Last Updated: August 10, 2026, 07:55 IST As per official data available on August 9, the VB-G RAM G scheme generated 7.67 crore person-days in July 2026. Rapid Read A person-day is a unit of measurement based on the ideal amount of work completed by one person in a working day. Employment generation under the government’s revamped rural job guarantee programme declined sharply in July, falling 49.94 per cent year-on-year, according to official data. The decline came after the government replaced the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with the newly launched Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, from July 1 this year. As per official data available on August 9, the VB-G RAM G scheme generated 7.67 crore person-days in July 2026. This was 49.94 per cent lower than the 15.33 crore person-days generated under MG-NREGS during the same month last year. A person-day is a unit of measurement based on the ideal amount of work completed by one person in a working day. While the VB-G RAM G dashboard recorded 7.67 crore person-days for July, the Ministry of Rural Development said around nine crore person-days were generated during the first month of the scheme’s implementation. The number of households availing themselves of the rural job guarantee programme also fell significantly.
In July, 68.94 lakh households benefited under VB-G RAM G, down 51.45 per cent from 1.42 crore households under MGNREGS in the corresponding month last year. Rural Employment At Five-Year Low The number of households and person-days recorded under the rural jobs programme were the lowest in the past five years. At 0.68 crore, the average number of households that availed themselves of VB-G RAM G was less than 40 per cent of the average 1.72 crore households recorded over the previous four years. Similarly, the 21.56 crore average person-days generated over the previous four years were significantly higher than the 7.67 crore person-days recorded in July this year, with July’s figure standing at around 35 per cent of the average. In March 2025, NREGS generated 17.56 crore person-days, a 0.70 per cent decline from the 17.69 crore person-days recorded in March 2024. The year-on-year fall in monthly employment generation under NREGS continued until June 2026, the last month of the scheme. July Drop Comes Amid Erratic Monsoon The decline in employment generation under VB-G RAM G in July comes amid an erratic monsoon. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), 50 per cent of the country’s 741 districts reported deficit-to-serious-deficit rainfall between June 1 and August 3. The rural job guarantee programme becomes a fallback option for unskilled agricultural labourers in such circumstances. Data from the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare showed that kharif crop coverage stood at 894.22 lakh hectares as of July 31, 2026.
The BriefWire