Hyderabad: Despite opposing the Centre’s decision to replace MGNREGA with Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB G RAM G), Telangana emerged as the best-performing major state in the scheme’s first month, recording the only substantial increase in rural employment generation in July.Person days refer to the total days of employment provided to workers, with each day of work by one person counted as one person day. Telangana generated 0.53 crore person days in July, equivalent to 53 lakh days of employment.At the national level, person day generation declined sharply by 49.1%, falling from 17.65 crore under MGNREGA in July 2025 to 8.99 crore under VB G RAM G in July 2026. Andhra Pradesh was the only other major state to register growth, recording a 55.2% increase from 0.91 crore to 1.41 crore person days.Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ranked behind Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in percentage terms, though all three recorded declines in person day generation.The figures are significant because Telangana had strongly opposed the replacement of MGNREGA with VB G RAM G and had written to the Centre on multiple occasions raising objections to provisions of the new law. While implementing the scheme from July 1, the State also decided to challenge the legislation in the Supreme Court.VB G RAM G replaced MGNREGA nationwide from July 1 and increased the statutory employment guarantee from 100 days to 125 days for eligible rural households.However, SBI Research cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from the first month’s data, noting that the transition to the new scheme may have affected person day generation. The migration of ongoing works, validation of new job cards, software deployment, creation of muster rolls and payment processing could all have contributed to reporting lags.The report also pointed out that states can now impose an aggregate 60-day pause during peak sowing and harvesting seasons, a provision that could directly reduce person day generation.Given the ongoing transition, SBI Research said the July figures may not necessarily reflect the employment trends likely to emerge in the coming months.
