MGNREGA’s Aadhar-Based Pay System
About MGNREGA:
- The programme was unveiled as a social safety net that protects “the right to work.”
- To improve the quality of life for those living in rural India, the local government must legally offer paid work for a minimum of 100 days.
- In collaboration with state governments, the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) of the Government of India is overseeing the full implementation of this programme.
- The candidate will receive wage employment within 15 days of filing the application, or from the day work is requested.
- entitlement to unemployment benefits if work is not found within fifteen days of making the application or from the date of employment search.
- Mandatory social audits of MGNREGA projects promote accountability and openness.
- Wage seekers can voice their concerns and make requests primarily in the Gramme Sabha.
- The MGNREGA work shelf and its priority are determined by the Gramme Sabha and Gramme Panchayat.
Qualities of the Scheme:
Problems under MGNREGA:
- Due to their lower administrative ability, poorer states have a harder time adapting than better ones.
- Poorer States spend less NREGA money than wealthier States, according to the program’s “regressive” spending pattern.
- Its most fundamental design ideas have been willfully overlooked or forgotten.
- The central government’s wage payment system has grown even more complicated.
- For instance, before payment due to a worker can be accepted, seven or more functionaries must sign off (stage one of the wage payment cycle).
- One of the main causes of State governments’ inability to guarantee NREGA’s full potential is the central government’s sporadic and unexpected money releases.
- Insufficient funding usually deters and frequently rejects requests for employment.
- On time openings are not maintained, and the quality of work offered falls short of expectations.
- The majority of reforms, like the national mobile monitoring system (NMMS), geotagging of assets, and the computerised fund management system, have concentrated on centralization.
- They’ve interfered with execution.
Payment methods for wages under MGNREGS:
- Account-based: pay transfers are made using the employee’s name, bank account number, and the branch’s IFSC code.
- ABPS: Initially, a worker’s job card and Aadhaar number need to be seeded.
- which entails verifying her work card information through the Aadhaar database.
- Only until all the information on the employment cards—including gender and spelling—matches the information in the Aadhaar database can authentication be considered successful.
- Their bank account needs to be connected to their Aadhaar.
- Each employee’s Aadhaar number needs to be accurately mapped using a National Payments Corporation of India software mapper, which serves as an ABPS clearinghouse, through their bank branch.
- The final bank account connected to Aadhaar receives funds transfers, with the Aadhaar number serving as the financial address.
Problems with the ABPS:
- If an employee completes any ABPS process incorrectly, they risk losing their job, not getting paid, or not getting paid into their preferred account.
- To fix these technical hiccups, workers must fork over hundreds of rupees and miss several days of pay.
- Economic and political research papers: It reveals that bureaucrats have taken to removing work cards as a result of pressure from the Union government to reach the full Aadhaar seeding targets.
- Spelling errors are widespread in rural areas because different administrative units create different papers.
- UIDAI has verified that only biometric data is accurately recorded; local authorities have the last say over demographic information.
- The Rural Development Ministry informed the Lok Sabha that the number of job card deletions in FY 2022–2023 was 247% higher than in prior years.
- Over 7 crore workers’ employment cards were erased in only the last two years.
- According to official data (January 2024), all workers are eligible for account-based payments, although only 16.9 crore of the 6 crore registered workers are qualified for the ABPS.
- LibTech: It asserts that “ABPS payments yield no appreciable advantage over bank account payments, with the ABPS payment amount being only 3% higher.”
Advantages of ABPS:
- Duplicate employment cards are eliminated.
- It lessens the delay in salary payments.
- It rejects payments less frequently.
The Way Ahead:
- The government’s ability to allocate sufficient funds is a prerequisite for timely payments.
- Whether account-based payments or ABPS are used, the time it takes to pay employees won’t change if there are sufficient funds.
- We support account-based payments because the challenges associated with ABPS resolution substantially outweigh those associated with account-based payment resolution.
- According to multiple studies, including the government’s own Economic Survey, states with higher spending levels are also better at administering the programme since they have greater capacities. This was determined in 2016.
- Reforms for a demand-driven, universal social security system like NREGA cannot be predicated on more effective targeting.
- The emphasis ought to be on exclusion rather than inclusion “errors.”
- In light of the program’s financial requirements, it is necessary to rethink the General Financial Rules in order to keep budgetary allocations adaptable to the States’ need for funding in response to labour demands.
- NREGA reforms should put workers’ easy and dignified access to benefits first, rather than just concentrating on efficiency in terms of administration and finances.
