Rural jobs scheme shows modest uptick in August, but trails 2025 MGNREGA levels

In its second month of operation, the government’s new rural employment scheme, Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-GRAM G) , registered a modest improvement in employment generation. However, a year-on-year comparison with MGNREGA for August shows a 9% decline in the availability of work for the rural poor.

In its first month of implementation, the new scheme reported a 48.01% decline in persondays generated compared with MGNREGA, falling from 17.65 crore in July 2025 to 9.18 crore in July 2026. August showed a smaller year-on-year decline than July. Persondays generated fell from 12.12 crore in August 2025 to 11.03 crore this year, a decline of 9.01%.

Taken together, July and August 2026 showed lower employment generation than the corresponding period in 2025. Cumulative persondays fell from 29.78 crore to 20.21 crore, a decline of 32.13%.