A nation trying to rebrand the poor

The government has replaced MNREGA with VB-G RAM G. On the surface, it definitely looks like some upgrade, but in reality, it's something so bad and more capitalistic in nature. This, instead of solving the problem of unemployment, will only amplify it and burden the states more than the central government, which can use it to fund billionaires and their own purses instead of the people. At the rate it's going, it's becoming more evident that the words "secular" and "socialism" will disappear by the end of this term, and soon enough, democracy itself in the name of reforms.

MNREGA remains one of the most incredible reforms ever passed, especially in a capitalistic environment, to curb unemployment and support the true proletariat. It was not simply a welfare scheme but rather something essential to curb unemployment in the country. This is a milestone to be appreciated since it worked brilliantly. Nearly 15 crore people have benefited via this act. In times when agricultural output was very poor, it saved millions from starvation. Not only that, it made women a part of the workforce, empowering them to do work, which makes it one of the most inclusive labor programs in the world. Villages saw water conservation, land development, and rural roads emerge through the hard work of the true proletarians, who are the backbone of the country and can build both lives and infrastructure when the government prioritizes people over capitalists. MNREGA definitely isn't perfect, but by and large, it has worked really well and needs tweaks, not a total reform and rebranding to push the same lame Hindu nationalist ideology of the BJP.

The major criticism of MNREGA obviously comes from the enemies of workers: the corporate class and their allies, so-called economists and think tanks. They called it "paid laziness" from their 10-story buildings and villas, which in reality was them not taking in workers, and this law acted as a breathing space for India's poor that it hasn't received since its history. The program suffered because it had to be implemented in a capitalist state, not because the act was flawed, but the current government wanted to be more "modern" and implement new rules that do not resonate well with the workers.

1. Delayed wage payments - nothing wrong with the program itself.
2. Underfunding - once again, fault of the government.
3. Digital attendance - apparently the government thinks smartphones are cheaper than eggs or milk.
4. Bureaucratic hostility - elitism of the officials.

None of these problems are actually worth considering reforms for, but the capitalist BJP thinks otherwise and uses reforms to play their cheap politics while also getting capitalists to support them because they're the ones who are going to reap the benefits from laborers.

Why is VB-G RAM G problematic, you might ask? Well, it's just a stupid neoliberal rebrand that sounds more like a delivery app startup rather than something serious and developmental for the nation.

We are being promised modernization but being fed market-fed employment. All of the demerits are being hidden under the guise of 125 days' employment, surely a nice headline for Godi media to brainwash the public but you needn't dig deeper; just scratch the surface, and you'll find some stuff so absurd that it does everything opposite to what the workers need.

The government claims that this will:

1. Integrate employment with infrastructure - claiming to create "productive assets."
2. Raise workdays and encourage state participation - while underfunding states to hamper programs.
3. Pause work during farming seasons - supposedly aligns with cycles (could've told us that it cuts costs already) and obviously the shameless print of "Viksit Bharat."

But in reality, it changes how the previous act worked and not for the better, but to dismantle the hard-won rights of the rural poor:

1. From people exercising laws to government discretion - no more universal guaranteed work; the state (guided by the Centre) decides when, where, and if you even deserve to work, turning a rights-based law into a discretionary scheme that the Centre can control at whim.
2. Government decides the locations - apparently employment only exists in certain "notified" areas decided by the Union, so workers in non-notified villages lose all rights, forcing migration or starvation while the Centre picks favorites.
3. Cost sharing - more like cost cutting and burden-shifting; states already starved of funds now pay a huge share (up to 40%), any excess costs fully on them, and "normative allocations" capped by the Centre, meaning if demand surges, tough luck, workers go unemployed while states go bankrupt or ignore the scheme entirely. This opens the door to political discrimination: BJP-ruled states get more funds, opposition states get squeezed.
4. Dependency on skilled labour - MNREGA targeted more toward unskilled laborers and wage laborers, a large majority of them being unskilled. The wording of "productive assets" could also mean they would take in skilled labor, which once again is plain elitist.
5. Gender setback - MNREGA's core success was in gender representation, which the new act fails to even recognize properly. This pushes women out of the workforce and makes them do the same old jobs that were forced upon them, leading to lesser social mobility, which obviously profits the rich.
6. Tech-driven exclusion and surveillance - Heavy push for biometric authentication, digital attendance, and geo-tagging means elderly workers, migrants, those without reliable phones or internet, or in remote areas get excluded entirely, no appeal, no work. It's turning empowerment into digital control and surveillance over the poor.
7. Weakening decentralization and Gram Panchayats - Power shifts massively to the Centre, undermining Gram Sabhas and local planning; works now tied to central templates and stacks, killing bottom-up democracy for top-down capitalist efficiency.

This bill was railroaded through Parliament without proper debate or consultation, erasing decades of workers' struggles in days just to appease their ideological masters. It pretty much says, "If we find something convenient for our cronies, we will get you to work; else, have fun being unemployed." The pause during farming seasons? It's not about cycles it's forcing cheap labor back to private farms and landlords during peak times, stripping workers of choice and bargaining power.

It pushes the burden of unemployment back to workers rather than the state. The state should empower the worker, not focus on changing the heights of the Aravallis, which would help their friends owning mining firms to loot the nation again at the expense of public funds or bailouts to the rich to keep them and their friends in power.

MNREGA is the policy we need with rising unemployment a true socialist experiment and this so-called "upgrade" is just saying goodbye to all the achievements, covered with buzzword slop.