MGNREGA Workforce in AP Falls 11 per cent During E-KYC Rollout
These reductions coincided with the period when e-KYC became compulsory for job card renewal and attendance via the NMMS app
Visakhapatnam: AP has seen a sharp decline in the number of MGNREGA workers during the one-month Aadhaar-based e-KYC campaign.
This was stated in a report by LibTech India, a group consisting of engineers, social workers and social scientists dedicated to enhancing public service delivery.
The report, titled “MGNREGA worker reduction during the Aadhaar e-KYC rollout”, stated that between Oct 8 and Nov 19 this year, the number of registered workers fell from 124.7 lakh to 110.5 lakh -- a drop of 14.2 lakh or 11.4 per cent.
Active workers declined by 6.2 lakh, amounting to 6.4 per cent in the same period, with the steepest district-level reductions recorded in Annamayya at 27 per cent, Kakinada 25 per cent, Tirupati 20 per cent, East Godavari 19 per cent and West Godavari at 18 per cent.
These reductions coincided with the period when e-KYC became compulsory for job card renewal and attendance via the NMMS app.
The report notes that AP achieved 79 per cent e-KYC completion among total workers and 86 per cent among active workers. Yet, worker numbers fell sharply, suggesting that completion pressure rather than genuine verification drove many deletions.
Frontline staff faced a compressed one-month deadline, daily monitoring and multiple technical barriers, including weak connectivity, failed biometric authentication, mismatched Aadhaar photos, and NMMS errors.
Under this pressure, the names of workers who could not complete e-KYC in time were deleted directly from the MIS system instead of them being supported through verification.
Union rural development ministry’s January 2025 Deletion SOP requires draft lists, public display in Panchayats, Gram Sabha scrutiny, worker notification and opportunities for objection. The report finds no evidence of these safeguards being followed anywhere in the state.
Gram Panchayats, mandated to verify deletions, were bypassed entirely, contradicting the ministry’s stated commitment to decentralization.
The findings mirror the 2022–23 ABPS transition, when Andhra Pradesh saw nearly 78 lakh deletions during another Aadhaar-linked reform.
LibTech India argues that repeated exclusion signals a structural mismatch between technology-led compliance drives and ground realities.
The report urges the state government to request withdrawal of mandatory e-KYC and NMMS requirements, run a reinstatement campaign by publicly displaying deletion lists at Gram Panchayats, and revive consultations with workers and civil society, drawing on the older APNA model to provide grounded feedback to the centre.