Aadhar-linked pay becomes mandatory for MGNREGS workers

Context: 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.
Background:

•    The deadline for making Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (ABPS) mandatory, extended five times, concluded on December 31, 2023.
•   Activists in the field note a significant increase in the deletion of MGNREGA job cards since the initiation of the mandatory ABPS enforcement.
•  According to data from the Union Rural Development Ministry, as of December 27, 34.8% of job card holders still do not qualify for ABPS payments.
•  The data suggests that a substantial portion of job card holders remains ineligible for ABPS, indicating challenges and concerns in the implementation process.

Need:
1. Preventing Leakages and Combating Black Money:

• Real-time necessity for Aadhaar lies in its ability to prevent leaks and address issues related to black money.

2. Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer:

•  The immediate need for Aadhaar is evident in facilitating direct benefit transfers, ensuring efficient and transparent disbursal of government subsidies and assistance.

3. Jan Dhan Yojana and Financial Inclusion:

•  Aadhaar is crucial for the success of initiatives like Jan Dhan Yojana, ensuring widespread financial inclusion by enabling every individual to have a bank account.

4. Social Inclusion of Migrant Population:

•    Aadhaar plays a vital role in socially including migrant populations across the country, ensuring they have access to essential services.

5. Door-Step Banking through AePS:

•   The real-time requirement for Aadhaar is seen in enabling door-step banking access through Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS), making financial services more accessible.

6. Expediting Passport Processing:

• Aadhaar facilitates faster processing of passport applications, streamlining the verification process for a more efficient and prompt issuance of passports.

7. Utilizing Digi Locker for Document Safety:

•    Aadhaar is essential for accessing the benefits of Digi Locker, providing a secure digital storage solution for important documents.

8. Empowering Residents with Trusted Identity:

•  The immediate need for Aadhaar is to empower residents with a widely trusted and verifiable identity, establishing a secure foundation for various services.

9. Paper-Less User Verification and Instant Services:

• Aadhaar is crucial for achieving paperless user verification, ensuring instant access to a range of services and enhancing overall efficiency.

Issues:

• The claimed savings due to Aadhaar are contested, with doubts raised about the assumption that Aadhaar has increased efficiency and reduced payment delays in MGNREGA.
• Analysis of over 18 lakh MGNREGA wage invoices for H1 2021-22 revealed that 71% of payments were delayed beyond the mandated period, challenging the government's assertion that Aadhaar reduces payment delays.
• Pressure to increase Aadhaar linking led to the deletion of 57% of genuine workers' job cards between 2015 and 2019, as revealed in a recent study of nearly 3,000 MGNREGA workers.
• Payment failures in APBS often occur due to "Inactive Aadhaar," resulting from software mapping failures with the National Payments Corporation of India, causing confusion and lack of resolution.
• APBS experiences cases of misdirected payments where Aadhaar numbers get linked to the wrong bank accounts, making detection challenging and raising concerns about transaction accuracy.
• Despite UIDAI's mandate to establish facilitation centers and grievance redressal mechanisms, such systems are reported to be absent, leaving workers and officials clueless about resolving payment failures and other issues.

Current status of Aadhaar linking:

• According to the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Third Amendment Rules, 2019, Aadhaar linking is mandatory to receive benefits or subsidies under schemes notified under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016.
• Aadhaar is also a preferred KYC document for other banking services.
• Amendments to the Telegraph Act, 1885, allow telecom users to use Aadhaar as a KYC document voluntarily, along with authentication, to obtain a new mobile connection.
• Aadhaar is not compulsory for school admissions or examinations conducted by CBSE, NEET for medical entrance, or the University Grants Commission.
• While Aadhaar is mandatory for availing state subsidies, benefits, and services, individuals without an assigned Aadhaar number cannot be denied essential entitlements such as ration or pension until they obtain Aadhaar.

Way forward:
Moving Beyond Technological Blame:
Advocate for a shift from blaming technology for governance issues and emphasize the importance of constitutional propriety and accountability in the use of technologies.
Nomenclature Overhaul:
Propose a change in the terminology from "beneficiaries" to "rights holders" for individuals receiving welfare measures, highlighting the shift towards recognizing entitlements as rights.
Feedback Mechanism Importance:
Stress the necessity of implementing a feedback mechanism to gather user experiences from recipients and field-level bureaucrats, ensuring a more inclusive and responsive governance approach.
Voluntary Aadhaar Linking Concerns:
Express concerns about the unpredictability of making Aadhaar linking with voter ID voluntary, drawing from prior experiences with Aadhaar in other domains, raising questions about potential misuse of authority