From the New Year, all wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme must be paid through an Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS), which requires workers’ Aadhaar details to be seeded to their job cards.
The fifth extension of the deadline to make the ABPS mandatory, giving State governments time to reconcile databases, ended on December 31, 2023. Since the first push in this direction, the rate of MGNREGA job card deletions has significantly risen, which activists working in the field say is directly linked to the mandatory imposition of this payment method.
The first order to enforce ABPS was issued on January 30, 2023, followed by extensions till February 1, March 31, June 30, August 31, and finally December 31. According to the Union Rural Development Ministry’s data, 34.8 % of job card holders still remain ineligible for this mode of payment as on December 27.
