Rural employment takes hit as VB-G RAM G person-days fall in Telangana

Employment generation under the VB-GRAM-G scheme has declined sharply in Telangana, with person-days, household participation and completion of 100 days of work all falling significantly. The State government has urged the Centre to expand permissible works under the scheme to help rural livelihoods affected by the El Nino-induced rainfall deficit.

Hyderabad: Compounding the livelihood concerns of rural people, particularly in the wake of the El Nino impact, the person-days generated under the VB-G RAM G scheme have been steadily declining in the State.

During 2024-25, 1,222.87 lakh person-days were generated. This came down to 731.63 lakh in 2025-26. The decline also affected the number of rural households provided employment under the scheme. While 26.69 lakh households were provided employment in 2024-25, the number declined to 22.08 lakh in 2025-26, a slump of 17.2 per cent compared to the previous year.

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The VB-G RAM G scheme is aimed at ensuring rural employment and facilitating people to eke out a livelihood. In the current scenario of deficit rainfall, many households could not complete 100 days of work.

In 2024-25, 92,688 households completed 100 days of work. However, the number declined sharply to 23,228 in 2025-26, reflecting the gravity of the situation.

Making matters worse, a large number of job cards were removed from the scheme. In 2024-25, 92,688 job cards were removed from the VB-G RAM G rolls, while the number increased to 1.25 lakh in 2025-26.

After the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) was repealed and VB-G RAM G was introduced, glitches were reported in registering app-based attendance for workers.

Officials said operational and technical issues were initially faced in the State while uploading attendance through NMMS (National Mobile Monitoring System) and e-KYC. However, they said the issues were subsequently resolved by the Central government.

Meanwhile, officials claimed that 649.58 lakh person-days were generated during April-June of 2026-27. This was 23 per cent higher than the corresponding period of 2025-26, they said.

In view of the El Nino impact, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy appealed to the Central government to include additional works under the VB-G RAM G scheme. During a recent meeting with Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, he specifically stressed that the inclusion of additional activities in the scheme would improve livelihoods besides promoting crop diversification.

He also sought inclusion of Indiramma housing works under the scheme. However, there has been no formal announcement from the Central government so far on the appeals made by the State government.