As of September 1, the Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) will become mandatory for receiving wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). However, despite multiple deadline extensions by the Union government, only 57.75% of workers are eligible for this system, according to available data.
Eligibility for ABPS wage payments requires workers to possess a job card, have their bank account linked to an Aadhaar card, and ensure that the account is connected to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) mapper through a process known as ‘mapping’. Activists and workers have been protesting against ABPS due to reported instances of Aadhaar-mapping failures with NPCI, leading to payment rejections and the deletion of job cards. Data analyzed by non-profit organization LibTech India revealed that only 57.75% of the total 26.84 crore workers under the rural job scheme met the ABPS eligibility criteria as of August 21.
Furthermore, the NREGA MIS data indicated that eight states have fewer than 60% of ABPS-eligible workers. Among them, Assam had the lowest with 25.1%, while larger states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh also fell below this threshold.
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