“MGNREGA workers will only be paid if they link Aadhaar within 5 days”
MGNREGA workers from Bihar have been peacefully protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the ‘app-based attendance’ mandate since February 13.
Since January 1, recording daily attendance on the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMPS) app became necessary. Many workers claimed that since then, they have “lost attendance and, in turn, wages owing to a weak network.”
Protesting women workers at Jantar Mantar under the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha banner. Today is the 7th day of the indefinite protest. Protest mobilisation is from 10 AM to 4 PM everyday. pic.twitter.com/O0r1EmTFNm
— NREGA Sangharsh (@NREGA_Sangharsh) February 19, 2023
Workers at the protest also criticised the app for slowing down the attendance procedure and pointed out that workers’ records were not kept even after a successful online attendance.
Every day, two geo-tagged images must be uploaded to this app by every NREGA worker. They will only get paid that day if the photos are uploaded and the attendance is recorded.
Workers claimed that a new directive is causing havoc. On January 30, 2023, The Ministry of Rural Development said that starting on February 1, 2023, all payments to MGNREGA workers would be made using the Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS). In its notification, the Ministry asked all UTs and states to pay workers only through the ABPS payment method.
The Administration asked NREGA workers who have already worked would only be paid if they linked their bank account with their Aadhaar within 5 days.
Digital terrorism: NREGA workers *who have already worked* are told that they won't be paid unless they all link their bank account with Aadhaar within 5 days – not an easy task for them. pic.twitter.com/Kx8AqDyAtf
— Road Scholarz (@roadscholarz) February 22, 2023
The NMMS app has issues and failures that make it difficult to use, just like any new software program. Problems are usually corrected through iterative development and testing, and functionality improves over time. However, the government wants to avoid paying attention to the worries raised by the NREGA employees and instead intends to make the application mandatory.
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The use of computer servers to scale the application for all NREGA employees is another issue that needs to be addressed. The Ministry of Rural Development officials there acknowledge the difficulties brought on by this new system. Nevertheless, the entire Ministry is unwilling to solve this problem.
Besides the technical difficulties brought on by the poor software design, the rural digital divide, brought on by a lack of smartphones and internet access, has caused further problems. Numerous NREGA coworkers have shared their experiences of the application that functions in government buildings but not on the work site, maybe because of issues with the network coverage.
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