App to Monitor MGNREGS Workers’ Attendance Set to be Tweaked as Mandatory Use Sparks Protests

Tweaks in the use of National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) — the app for capturing attendance for those claiming work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) — and the monitoring mechanism for the same are likely with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) “reviewing” the new system after issues with the mandatory use of the app sparked nationwide protests by workers.

According to officials, the ministry is looking at “tweaking some of the features” of the app to make it more user-friendly and evolve a mechanism to ensure that workers don’t miss out on their wages or a day’s work due to any issues emerging out of the use of the app.

The concerns were raised during a review meeting held earlier this month, which had representatives from all sections, including top officials from MoRD, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), national and state banks and civil society organisations, among others.

“Some changes in the way the app is used are likely to be introduced. Technical issues in the use of the app, in particular areas where there is little or no internet connection available, were also discussed. There was agreement on the fact that there is no system in place to monitor the photos being uploaded on the app in order to capture workers’ attendance, which too needs to change,” said a source.

Issues ranging from poor connectivity in uploading geo-tagged photos to get marked present for a day’s work on the app and consequent delay in payment of wages or being denied it as well as not having Aadhaar-linked bank accounts have irked workers who sat on a 60-day-long protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in April this year.

While protesting workers have now gone back to their respective states, they are holding protests there itself to put pressure on the state governments against the mandatory use of the app.

The workers have been demanding a rollback of the app, but the Centre maintains that the app will not be scrapped. However, it agreed on making changes to it, said an MoRD official who did not wish to be named.

“The app allows real-time attendance, which is a basic necessity to weed out corruption from the scheme. There are some issues that needed to be fixed. We are working on it,” the official said.

The NMMS app is used to record workers’ attendance at worksites by uploading geo-tagged photographs twice a day. It was made mandatory across all worksites from January 1 this year. The app was introduced in order to weed out corruption and allow more fiscal transparency.

The MoRD on January 30 this year announced that all MGNREGS payments will be made only via Aadhaar-based Payment System (ABPS) from February 1, the deadline for which was later extended to March 31 and then to June 30 following requests from across states.

“We will ensure that anyone who has worked even for a day is not exempted from the system and is paid the due wages. We have created a back-up mechanism for the same,” the official added.

For those not having ABPS bank accounts, the wage list is not generated and they are automatically left out of the payment system. Large number of workers registered under the scheme either do not hold Aadhaar-seeded accounts or have to go through a complicated process for getting the KYC done to make it Aadhaar-enabled, hence missing out on days of work.​