Recasting Rural Employment
What the Budget Signals beyond Allocation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22410472 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jyothis Sathyapalan (0000-0002-0220-1063, corresponding author), Jyothis Sathyapalan Jyothis Sathyapalan |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 15 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-28 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economic and political weekly/Economic & political weekly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0012-9976 • E-ISSN: 2349-8846 |
| Publisher | Sameeksha Trust (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.71279/epw.v61i15.48296 |
| OpenAlex | W7166190361 |
| Language | EN |
The Union Budget 2026–27 marks a decisive shift in India’s rural employment policy with the introduction of the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB–G RAM G) and the erosion of MGNREGS. By consolidating rural employment expenditure into a centrally planned flagship programme, the budget moves away from a demand-responsive employment guarantee towards a normatively planned and fiscally capped framework. This commentary argues that the shift redefines how employment risk is managed, weakening the counter-cyclical and insurance functions of public employment and transferring residual labour risk from the state to rural households.
Budget constraint · Public expenditure · Public policy · Rural area · State (computer science) · Work (physics) · Agricultural Economics and Practices · Agricultural risk and resilience · Indian Economic and Social Development
| Highly cited | No |
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