UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 25th March 2025

Home UPSC Current Affairs Centre issues guidelines to tackle high rate of deletions of MGNREGS job-cards

Centre issues guidelines to tackle high rate of deletions of MGNREGS job-cards

Why in News?

The Ministry of Rural Development has issued new guidelines to regulate MGNREGS job card deletions, ensuring due verification through gram sabhas, a right to appeal, and public disclosure to enhance transparency.

Introduction

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has witnessed a significant number of job card deletions in recent years.
In response to concerns over arbitrary deletions, the Ministry of Rural Development has issued fresh guidelines aimed at ensuring transparency and due process in the deletion of job cards.

What is MGNREGA?

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, was enacted to provide a legal guarantee for wage employment to rural households.
Objectives of MGNREGA
- Enhance livelihood security in rural areas.
- Provide 100 days of wage employment per financial year to adult members of rural households willing to do unskilled manual labor.
Eligibility Criteria
- Target Group: All rural households in need of employment.
- Registration: Households apply through the Gram Panchayat, which verifies details and issues job cards.
- Women’s Participation: At least one-third of wage seekers should be women.
Employment Conditions
- Work should be within 5 km of the applicant’s village; beyond this, 10% extra wages are given.
- Employment should be provided within 15 days of application; failure to do so results in an unemployment allowance.

Types of Permissible Works Under MGNREGA

Water Conservation: Irrigation canals, ponds, and water harvesting.
Afforestation & Drought-Proofing: Tree plantations.
Rural Connectivity: Construction of roads and culverts.
Sanitation & Hygiene: Building toilets and waste management systems.
Rural Infrastructure: Community centers, storage facilities, and compost pits.
Employment-Linked Projects: Livestock shelters, fisheries, and farm infrastructure.

Deletion of MGNREGA Job Cards

As per Schedule II, Paragraph 23 of the MGNREGA Act, 2005, job cards can be deleted only under specific conditions:

Permanent Migration: If a household relocates from the Gram Panchayat permanently.
Duplicate Job Cards: If a job card is fraudulently issued or exists more than once.
Forged Documents: If a job card was obtained using fake documents.
Urban Reclassification: If the Gram Panchayat is declared a Municipal Corporation, job cards are invalid.
Not Willing to Work: Only valid if the worker formally submits a written request for deletion.

Process for Job Card Deletion

To ensure transparency and fairness, the Ministry of Rural Development has issued new guidelines:

Verification through Gram Sabha:
- Job card deletions must be discussed and verified in a Gram Sabha before removal.
- Special Gram Sabhas must be convened twice a year to review flagged job cards and allow workers to appeal.
Right to Appeal:
- The list of workers proposed for deletion must be publicly available for 30 days.
- Affected workers have the right to challenge deletions through a structured appeal process.
Prevention of Arbitrary Deletions:
- Many deletions cite “Not willing to work” as a reason, but in such cases, a formal written request must be submitted.
- Job card deletions must be reviewed by at least two independent persons before being finalized.
Wage Payments Before Deletion:
- Before deletion, all pending wages and dues must be settled.

Role of Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS) in Deletions

The surge in MGNREGA job card deletions coincided with the implementation of Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS) in January 2023.

Challenges with ABPS Implementation

ABPS requires workers’ Aadhaar numbers to be linked with job cards and bank accounts.
Workers with non-linked or improperly linked Aadhaar numbers were removed from the scheme.
Many deletions seem to have been driven by compliance issues rather than genuine reasons.

Implications of Job Card Deletions

Violation of the Right to Work
- Removing job cards based on “not willing to work” denies legally guaranteed employment under MGNREGA.
- Many workers had worked or requested work in the same financial year of their deletion.
Procedural Violations
- Some job cards were deleted citing “village becomes urban,” but only a few households were removed, contradicting the Act.
- Many deletions occurred without Gram Sabha approval, violating legal procedures.
Lack of Verification & Transparency
- Deletions recorded in the MGNREGA Management Information System (MIS) have not been independently verified by the government.
- No comprehensive analysis was conducted to assess whether workers truly did not want employment.
Impact on Rural Livelihoods
- With high rural unemployment rates, arbitrary deletions reduce employment opportunities for the most vulnerable.
- Women, landless laborers, and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected.
Data-Driven Concerns
- The timing of mass deletions aligns with the government’s push for Aadhaar-based payments, suggesting that deletions were driven more by compliance mandates than genuine reasons.

Scale of Job Card Deletions

A report has highlighted that 84.8 lakh workers registered under MGNREGS have been deleted from the system.
Over the past four years, 10.43 crore workers have been removed from the scheme, with a sharp increase observed in 2022-23, when 5.53 crore deletions occurred—marking a 247% rise from the previous year (2021-22), which saw 1.49 crore deletions.
The surge in deletions has coincided with the government’s push for an Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS), which was made mandatory for MGNREGS payments in January 2023.
However, the government maintains that there is no direct correlation between ABPS implementation and job card deletions.

New Guidelines to Regulate Job Card Deletions

To address the challenges of large-scale deletions, the Ministry of Rural Development has outlined a structured verification process to be followed before removing any worker from the scheme:

Mandatory Verification in Gram Sabha:
- Job card deletions must be approved in a gram sabha—either in the regular meeting for approving MGNREGS work plans, a social audit gram sabha, or a special gram sabha convened for this purpose.
Limited Grounds for Deletion:
- Job cards can be deleted only under specific conditions, including:
  - - Permanent migration of the household to another panchayat or urban area.
    - Declaration of the gram panchayat as an urban settlement.
    - Duplicate job card entries.
    - Registration based on forged documents.
    - Death of the worker.
Right to Appeal and Transparency Measures:
- The list of job cards proposed for deletion must be made public for at least 30 days.
- Twice a year, gram sabhas must discuss the draft list of deletions and hear objections from affected households.
- Workers have the right to appeal against their deletion, and the cause of deletion must be clearly recorded in gram sabha minutes.
Formal Written Request for ‘Not Willing to Work’ Cases:
- Many deletions have cited “not willing to work” as a reason. The guidelines clarify that in such cases, the worker or household must submit a formal written request before deletion is approved.
Pending Dues Must Be Cleared Before Deletion:
- Before removing a worker, the government must ensure that all pending wages and dues are paid to the affected worker.

MGNREGS Faces Fund Constraints

Despite these measures, MGNREGS is facing a financial crunch.
The Union Budget 2025 has kept the scheme’s allocation unchanged at ₹86,000 crore, even as demand for rural employment remains high.
Additionally, the average workdays per household under MGNREGS have dropped to just 44 days, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the scheme in providing sustained employment.

Conclusion

The new guidelines aim to ensure greater accountability and fairness in job card deletions under MGNREGS by introducing structured verification, appeal mechanisms, and transparency measures.
However, with ongoing financial constraints and concerns over Aadhaar-based payment challenges, the scheme continues to face operational hurdles in fulfilling its objective of providing guaranteed employment to rural workers.