Modi Govt Systematically Throttling MGNREGA by Insisting on ABPS and NMMS without Necessary Infrastructure: Jairam Ramesh

Moneylife Digital Team 28 October 2024

Public Interest

Raising serious questions on the dwindling state of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or MGNREGA due to Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) related issues, including delayed or non-payment of wages to workers on lack of infrastructure at local levels, Jairam Ramesh, member of Parliament (MP) and general secretary in-charge communications of Indian National Congress (Congress) accused the Narendra Modi government of 'systematically throttling' MGNREGA. He also demanded a hike in its budget as crores of poor people are totally dependent on MGNREGA for their livelihood.

In a statement, Mr Ramesh says, "MGNREGA - the lifeline of crores of India's poorest communities - is being systematically throttled by the government. Budget allocations are being cut relentlessly, and wage rates have been stagnant. Now, through an ill-conceived reliance on technology, workers are being denied their right to work and fair payment."

MGNREGA - the lifeline of crores of India's poorest communities - is being systematically throttled by the non-biological PM's Government.

Budget allocations are being cut relentlessly, and wage rates have been stagnant. Now, through an ill-conceived reliance on technology,… pic.twitter.com/hq119FrdjM
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 26, 2024

The Congress MP also shared an analysis of MGNREGA data that is available in the public domain. "As per analysis undertaken on the public data available on the MGNREGA portal by Lib Tech (a consortium of academics and activists), 27.4% of all registered workers (6.7 crore workers) and 4.2% of active workers (54 lakh workers) remain ineligible for ABPS. More worryingly, between April and September this year, 84.8 lakh workers registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) found their names deleted from the programme. This deletion coincides with the implementation of the ABPS, and So far, Estimates from AP suggest that at least 15% of these deletions are wrongful."

"ABPS-related issues and deletions may be impacting MGNREGA as a whole. The person days (total number of workdays a person registered under the programme completes in a financial year) generated in MGNREGA have fallen 16.6% since last year," he says. "The ABPS comes in conjunction with the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS). Both these policies are resulting in the violation of the right to work on demand and the right to timely payment of wages guaranteed under the MGNREGA."

In January 2024, the Union ministry of rural development mandated the nationwide implementation of ABPS for MGNREGS. To be eligible for ABPS, workers must meet several conditions, including linking their Aadhaar to their MGNREGA job card, matching names in both cards and seeding of their bank account with Aadhaar and mapping it with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Pointing out to the loss of work in MGNREGA, Mr Ramesh says, workers demand for work is not registered if their accounts are not ABPS-enabled. "MGNREGA work is not undertaken in villages where workers do not have smartphones that support the NMMS app. The result is workers are not signing up for NREGA work because they feel discouraged and disincentivised after having lost their wages in the past."

Commenting on wages paid under MGNREGA, the Congress MP highlighted three issues faced by workers. He says, "Workers' wages are not paid within the statutorily mandated period of 15 days and no compensation is paid for the delay. Workers' wages are not paid at all, because their accounts are not ABPS-enabled and workers' attendance is not registered on the NMMS app due to poor Internet connectivity, server issues, or other technical issues."

"Additionally, the budget of MNREGA is also being cut continuously and the wages for workers under it (Congress had promised a minimum of Rs400) is also very low," Mr Ramesh says, demanding the ministry for rural development to immediately put a stop to this insistence on ABPS and NMMS and increase the budget for MNREGA and the daily wages of workers.

Earlier, Road Scholarz (@roadscholarz), a handle maintained by freelance scholars and student volunteers interested in action-oriented research, socio-economic rights and related issues, posted on X the havoc caused by the new, app-based attendance system of MGNREGA. "These brave women in Muzaffarpur recently sat on dharna for a week in the bitter cold, demanding NREGA work. Now, they are working, but many of them are not being paid. The app-based 'NMMS' system is wholly inappropriate for rural Bihar. If a worker's photo is not uploaded by 11am, she won't get paid. So, these women are getting ready for another dharna. But how long can they keep struggling?" the post says.

2/3 … many of them are not being paid. The App-based "NMMS" system is wholly inappropriate for rural Bihar. If a worker's photo is not uploaded by 11 am, she won't get paid. pic.twitter.com/2FKN1iSISc
— Road Scholarz (@roadscholarz) January 9, 2023