India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was the outcome of a sustained deliberative process that gave it some mettle. Within a few years, the act became a lifeline for the rural poor with wide-ranging benefits. Later on, however, interlinked problems of erratic payments, centralisation, technocracy and corruption undermined the programme. The Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, rushed through Parliament last December to replace MGNREGA, defuses the employment guarantee without addressing any of........

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