New Delhi: A month since the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was replaced with the Modi government’s Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), employment generation has recorded a sharp decline of 49.94% year-on-year in July, reported The Indian Express. VB-G RAM G was implemented from July 1 this year. Official data on the new scheme’s dashboard, as of August 9, showed that only 7.67 crore person-days – a measuring unit to calculate the ideal amount of work done by a person in one working day – were generated under the VB-G RAM G scheme in July, as compared to 15.33 crore person-days generated under the MGNREGS in the same month last year.However, the Union ministry of rural development said around 9 crore person-days were generated during the first month of implementation of the scheme.Per the data, the number of households that availed the rural job guarantee scheme came down by 51.45%, to 68.94 lakh, in July this year. In the same month last year, under MGNREGS, the figure stood at 1.42 crore.While a year-on-year decline was seen until the last month (June 2026) of the erstwhile NREGS, the figures for July – for both, person-days and household – per the new scheme are the lowest recorded in the last five years. The average number of households that availed of the VB-G RAM G scheme was 0.68 crore, less than 40% of the average 1.72 crore households over the previous four years. Person-days were also just 35% of 21.56 crore average person-days in the last four years.Per the daily, the July slide under VB-G RAM G is significant at a time when 50% of the country’s 741 districts have reported deficit-to-serious-deficit rainfall from June 1 to August 3.Yet, the ministry has stated that the transition from MGNREGS to VB–G RAM G has been “smooth, seamless and technology-enabled, with all States/UTs notifying their respective schemes and the complete administrative and digital ecosystem being operationalised before commencement of the programme from day one,” Express reported.In a written reply, the daily reported, a ministry official stated that the Union government provided a budget estimate of Rs 95,692 crore for FY 2026–27, “the highest ever for any rural employment programme”. Also read: The Muddling VB-G RAM G Act: A Setback Beyond Repair?The official also reportedly stated that “more than 98% of rural households demanding employment have been offered work”. “During the first month of implementation, around nine crore person-days have been generated, with attendance being captured through the NMMS using face authentication together with the prescribed exception-handling mechanism in genuine cases. More than 1.33 crore rural workers have been offered employment as per their demands for employment and works are being executed through more than nine lakh active worksites, ensuring adequate availability of employment opportunities,” the daily reported, citing the email response, adding that around 63% of the total person-days generated so far have been contributed by women, substantially exceeding the statutory requirement of one-third participation.While the ministry noted that it is monitoring the implementation of the new scheme, there was no explanation for the record decline.Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, sharing the report on X, alleged that the first month of the VB-G RAM G scheme is “already bringing to light the cost of dismantling MGNREGA”.“VB-G RAM G is outright rozgar chori (employment theft),” he wrote in a post.MGNREGS, enacted in 2005 after years of grassroots mobilisation, guaranteed a legal right to 100 days of work a year to any rural household willing to do unskilled manual labour, with payment owed regardless of whether work was actually available. The government has promoted VB-G RAM G as an upgrade, raising the guarantee from 100 to 125 days of employment a year. But as The Wire has reported, experts and rights activists have repeatedly argued that the money committed falls far short of that promise, making it impossible to implement. At least three states, two of them Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled, have also raised concerns about the increased financial burden on them under the new scheme.