The Right to Work Deleted

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) guarantees 100 days of work per year for rural households. Each household has a job card that lists its registered adults, and no one can work without a job card. To add new members to a job card, proof of adulthood is required. However, under certain circumstances, people can be removed from these job cards, a process outlined in the Act.

Guidelines for Deletions:

• Job cards can be deleted if:
  • The household permanently migrates.
  • The job card is found to be a duplicate.
  • It was issued based on forged documents.
  • If a Gram Panchayat is reclassified as a municipal corporation, all job cards in that Panchayat are deleted.
• If a person is to be removed from the list, they must be given a chance to explain, in the presence of two independent witnesses. These rules are mentioned in the Master Circular, a guideline document issued by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) to ensure that deletions are fair and transparent.

The Rise in Deletions:

• In 2021-22, around 1.49 crore workers were deleted from MGNREGA job cards. However, this number surged to 53 crore in 2022-23 — an increase of 247%. Over the past four years, 10.43 crore workers have been removed from job cards across the country.
  • This sudden surge coincided with the government's push to make Aadhaar-based payments (ABPS) mandatory for MGNREGA workers. For ABPS to work, every worker's Aadhaar number must be linked with their job card.
• In the process of increasing Aadhaar linkage, officials were pressured to delete workers to make the compliance percentage look better. This led to deletions without proper verification, with some workers being removed based on incorrect reasons, even though they were still entitled to work.

Reasons for Deletions:

• A large number of deletions (about 83% in 2023) were attributed to workers being labeled as "Not willing to work." However, many of these workers had either worked or asked for work during the same year they were deleted. The most troubling part is that many deletions were done without informing the workers or following the required process, like involving the Gram Sabha (local village council).
• Other Issues:
  • Some deletions were justified as "village becomes urban," even though, according to the Act, all job cards in an urbanized village should be deleted, not just a few workers.
  • A staggering 71% of deletions were attributed to workers being "Not willing to work," despite the high unemployment in rural areas. This number raises serious concerns about the accuracy and fairness of these deletions.
• Problems with the Process:
  • Many workers were deleted without any verification or due process, which is required by the Act.
  • The government, despite listing the reasons for deletions in the MGNREGA Management Information System (MIS), hasn't conducted any analysis of these deletions, leading to potential misuse of the system.

Recommendations for Improvement:

• Verification and Audits: Independent audits and checks should be implemented to ensure that deletions are legitimate.
• Involving Gram Sabhas: Deletions should be conducted transparently, with Gram Sabhas (village councils) involved in the decision-making process.
• Accountability and Transparency: There should be clear records, public consultations, and grievance redress systems to ensure that no worker is wrongfully removed from the job card.
• Training Local Authorities: Gram Panchayats (local councils) should be trained to follow proper protocols when making decisions about deletions.