42% NREGA workers in a fix post Aadhaar payout

AS the Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) for receiving wages for workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is set to become mandatory from September 1, data shows that only 57.75 per cent of workers are eligible for it despite the Union government issuing multiple deadline extensions.

- PREETHA NAIR

To be eligible for APBS wage payments, a worker must have a job card and her bank account should be seeded with an Aadhaar card. The account must also be connected to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) mapper, a complex process known as 'mapping'.

Activists and workers have been protesting against the ABPS as there are widely reported cases of failure of Aadhaar-mapping with NPCI, resulting in the rejection of payments and deletion of job cards of workers in large numbers.

According to data analysed by non-profit LibTech India, the national average of ABPS-eligible workers stood at a mere 57.75 per cent out of the total of 26.84 crore workers under the rural job scheme as of August 21.