New Delhi: A desire to digitally transform a country requires digital infrastructure. However, that doesn’t appear to be happening in India, especially in the rural areas, as many MGNREGS workers have reported a delay in their monthly wages.
While the Union government has been pushing for a digital economy, cash is still king in rural areas because of a lack of adequate banking infrastructure and unavailability of proper internet connection.
Similarly, the labourers who work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are bearing the brunt of the government’s push for technology coupled with a lack of digital infrastructure.
This is because of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) application, which was introduced by the Union government in May 2021 to plug leakages in the implementation of the scheme. The app records regular attendance of daily wage labourers working under the scheme.
However, IndiaSpend quoted experts as saying that the app needs to be scrapped because it meets no objectives.
MGNREGS provided a safety net for migrant workers and was even hailed as ‘saviour’ for rural workers during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The mandatory use of NMMS app
Before the introduction of the NMMS app, the workers’ attendance was physically marked on paper, IndiaSpend reported. But under the NMMS, two time-stamped and geo-tagged photographs are required to be taken at the worksite to mark the attendance of each worker.
Many workers told IndiaSpend that the introduction of the new app system has led to around 30 people not coming to work. Due to a lack of proper internet connectivity in the area, the attendance of many workers is not getting recorded by the app. That is leading to a delay in the payment of wages.
Chandan Kumar, a Rozgar Sevak in Chainpur panchayat, Jharkhand, told the news outlet: “There is a grave issue of both power and network in our area, which is why the attendance is not getting recorded.” he said, explaining why wages were being delayed leading to no-show by the workers.
“This app needs to be scrapped. We are not anti-technology,” Nikhil Dey, social activist and founder member, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and National Campaign For People’s Right to Information told IndiaSpend. “Nobody is denying there is corruption. But technology has to be appropriate, but the burden now is on the worker.”
Workers not getting due wages after having done the work is “unconstitutional”, he said.
Also read: Chart: Budget 2023’s NREGA Allocation Is Lower Than All Previous Modi 2.0 Years
Interestingly, earlier, the system allowed the worker to come at any time to work. Once they had completed the allotted task, they could go for other non-MGNREGS works, Chandan told IndiaSpend. “But now it is mandatory to stay from 6 am to 11 am because the attendance has to be marked within that time,” he said.
One of the workers quoted by IndiaSpend said she bought a new phone after borrowing nearly Rs 7,000 as she was told the NMMS app would work on a new phone. However, the phone only supported 2G network and could not support the app.
Rajendran Narayanan, faculty at Azim Premji University, in an Economic and Political Weekly report, had said, “Since there is no back-end authentication mechanism to match a worker with their photograph, the app fails to meet the very aim of curbing corruption for which it was purportedly introduced.”
Moreover, it is mandatory to record attendance in the app for both times. “If the attendance is not recorded for either session, then the attendance for the overall day will not be considered,” said Chandan.
Amrang Dang, block development officer of Mahuadanr block, however, told IndiaSpend that there is no issue of network and that the use of NMMS has reduced the problem of fake attendance. He also said that if any worker had a problem in registering attendance, they could take a screenshot and inform the block headquarters. However, he did not say anything about how workers could be compensated if their attendance was not registered due to network or technical error.
Aadhaar-based payment system
Experts flagged the issue of mandatory Aadhaar-Based Payment System for MGNREGS wages. Development economist Jean Drèze wrote for The Wire that this move is a ‘recipe for disaster’.
Also read: Average Employment Under NREGA Likely Lower This Financial Year Than Last 2 Years: Report
He had explained saying, “To understand this, we need to remember the basics of NREGA wage payments. Until now, the NREGA payment system allowed two modes of wage payment: “account-based” and “Aadhaar-based”. The former is an ordinary bank transfer, based on the worker’s name, bank name and account number. The latter refers to the ABPS, which treats Aadhaar as a financial address.”
“For the ABPS option to work, not only must the worker’s Job Card and bank account be seeded with Aadhaar, the account must also be connected to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) mapper, a process known as “mapping”. If a worker has several bank accounts, as often happens, the ABPS sends wages to her latest-mapped bank account. If this sounds a little complicated, think of how it sounds to an average NREGA worker.”
If the Aadhaar-mapping with NPCI fails, payments get rejected and wages get routed to the last Aadhaar-seeded account, which is a problem for those with multiple accounts, Lib Tech India had said in another report.
“The APBS architecture is opaque. It has made it nearly impossible for workers to track which account their payment has been deposited in. The local administration is often unaware or not equipped to rectify errors that are extremely technical or difficult to decode.”
The MGNREGS workers have demanded that the government revoke the app-based attendance system, Aadhaar-based payment system, increase the NREGA budget, and pay their wages on time and release their pending wages. They protested for 60 continuous days in Delhi.
On May 2, the Union government held talks with civil society organisations on this matter, the Indian Express reported.
