Kesar Devi is still awaiting payment for the 35 days she worked between January and March this year under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Although she had worked all these days, attendance was recorded for only a few days in the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), the app-based attendance system.
The job site supervisors told him to come in later to record the remaining attendance. Also, his bank account is not linked to Aadhaar and therefore he was told to do KYC first to claim salary.
According to the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) Management Information System (MIS) portal, since the NMMS app was launched, the number of ‘person-days’ generated between January and February 2023 fell to 34.59 million. rupees, which is much less than the number of person-days generated in pre-Covid years in the corresponding period. According to government data, the number of ‘person-days’ generated under the scheme during the same period in 2021-22 was Rs 53.07 crore, in 2020-21 it was Rs 56.94 crore, 47, 75 crore in 2019-20 and 47.86 crore in 2018-19.
From a village in Dungarpur, Rajasthan, Kesar descended with a group of female workers to join the sit-in demanding the reversal of the new app, wage increases and the number of ‘person-days’ allowed per household, at Jantar Mantar . in the national capital. The protest has gone on for more than 50 days, with hundreds of workers from towns in every state joining each day seeking help from the central government.
“I got a job under MGREGS for 13 days in January, 10 days in February and 12 days in March. I have not received payment for any of the days so far. The site officials just told me that there is something wrong with the app and to come back later. I don’t know what to do. We are only up to date. On the days I don’t have work, there is no food for us,” said Kesar, 32, who is the sole breadwinner for his family of three.
Issues such as poor connectivity to upload geotagged photos to mark as present in the NMMS app and not having bank accounts linked to Aadhaar have crippled the workers, most of whom, especially women, rely solely on the employment guarantee scheme for support their families.
These problems come on top of the biggest budget cut ever made in the scheme this year, which MGNREGS campaigners say has already caused a 30% drop in jobs available under the scheme.
Emails sent to senior MoRD officials seeking a response on the issues went unanswered. News18 will update this report if and when a response is received.
Complicated app hits workers
The NMMS app is used to record worker attendance at workplaces, uploading geotagged photos twice a day. It was made mandatory in all workplaces from January 1, 2023. The app was introduced to eliminate corruption and allow for greater tax transparency.
The Ministry of Rural Development, on January 30, also announced that all MGRNEGS payments will be made only through the Aadhaar Based Payment System (ABPS) from February 1, the deadline of which was later extended to 31 of March. However, according to the MoRD’s own MIS Report, only 49% of NREGA workers are eligible for ABPS to date, which means more than 10 million workers nationwide.
Until last year, the plan allowed for a flexible salary payment system with account-based payments and Aadhaar-based payments in place.
Around 27.5 million workers are registered under the scheme. App-based assistance and Aadhaar-based payments have become mandatory criteria for payment of workers’ wages under the scheme.
“The whole system of looking for and getting work under the scheme and then getting paid for the work has become so difficult with the budget cuts, the new time attendance app and this ABPS where workers are just stuck doing the chores. rounds of blockading offices and banks end up spending what little money they have,” said Balu Lal, head of Asangathit Mazdoor Union, Rajasthan.
NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a workers’ umbrella body, has been seeking relief from these mandatory changes. The workers, along with activists from the Popular Action for the Employment Guarantee (PAEG), delivered a letter of the workers’ demands to the Secretary of the MoRD on April 3.
Worker groups have cited examples of problems registering digital assistance.
In Jharkhand’s West Singhbum district, workers are given zero assistance in online check-ins despite being marked as present on physical rosters and having completed their assigned jobs.
Sharada Gopal, co-founder, Jagruta Mahila Okkoota, from the Hindalgi village of Karnataka, said none of the workplace supervisors have access to smartphones, making it impossible to mark attendance on the NMMS app.
“As a result, no work has been carried out under the scheme this year, depriving many households of their only source of income. The scheme is essentially important for women, who run their families alone and raise their children by bringing women into the paid workforce. These payment issues and therefore the fall of the scheme will only push us back,” she said.
According to Nikhil Dey, founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shkati Sangathan, a group of social activists and economists who have worked for MGNREGS worker rights for years, despite pointing out problems in the app during its pilot run, the MoRD has not addressed these issues. issues.
“It is now implemented nationwide and is mandatory even when more than 1 lakh Gram Panchayats across the country do not have a single NMMS device in use. Also, in most rural areas and pockets, there is no network coverage. Undercalculation of salaries and technical errors are common. Also, women without smartphones can no longer be an MGREGS Mate. With all these problems in the use of the app, to deny wages to workers is to take away their right to work guaranteed by the scheme,” Dey said.
Dey added that there is no state-level monitoring of photos uploaded to the app. Once it is uploaded, if there is a failure or a wrong image is sent, it cannot be fixed in the block or zonal or the state, it is directly controlled by the union ministry, he said.
“In addition, the complicated system of obtaining KYC for ABPS has left a large number of workers out of being eligible to search for work, since a salary list is not generated for those who do not have one. Bank and bloc officials do not know how to rectify ABPS failures. Multiple worker trips to understaffed banks end up with workers having to spend a day’s wages to receive their weekly wages,” Dey said.
read all latest news from india here
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.