Context: The Ministry of Rural Development has issued guidelines to tackle the challenge of high rate of deletions of job cards issued to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key Facts about MGNREGA.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
- Launched: under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005.
- Objective: Provides at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment per financial year to rural households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work.
- Implementing Authority: Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD)
- Type of Work Covered: Water conservation, rural connectivity, irrigation, land development, etc.
Recent Central Govt. guidelines on Job Card Deletions:
- Gram Sabha Approval: Job cards or workers' deletions should take place only after due verification in the gram sabha, or in the social audit gram sabha, or in a special gram sabha called for the purpose.
- Permitted reasons for Job Card Deletion:
- Permanent migration of the household to urban areas or another Panchayat.
- Gram Panchayat declared as an urban settlement.
- Duplicate job card or forged registration.
- Death of the worker.
- Household/workers formally requesting deletion in writing.
- Publication of Deleted Names: Names of deleted workers/job cards must be in the public domain for 30 days to allow objections. The cause of deletion of each job card has to be revealed. Each cause of deletion must be confirmed by the gram sabha.
- Right to Appeal: Households can appeal against job card cancellations. Gram Sabhas to discuss flagged deletions twice a year.
- Payment of Dues: No deletion to be carried out before clearing pending wages of workers.
Reason for Issuance of Guidelines
- High rate of deletions of job cards issued under MGNREGS. Over 10.43 crore workers were deleted in the last four years. The deletions have increased after the Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS) became mandatory in January 2023.
Mass deletions of job cards without proper scrutiny can undermine MGNREGS’s purpose. A balance must be maintained between policy enforcement and ensuring social security for the rural workforce.