MGNREGA as a Technological Laboratory: Analysing Wage Payment Delays as a Result of Two Digital Interventions

Suguna Bheemarasetti, Anuradha De, Rajendran Narayanan, Parul Saboo and Laavanya Tamang ()
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Suguna Bheemarasetti: Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD)
Anuradha De: Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD)
Rajendran Narayanan: Azim Premji University
Parul Saboo: Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD)
Laavanya Tamang: Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD)

The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 2025, vol. 68, issue 2, No 17, 706 pages

Abstract: Abstract The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is India’s rural employment guarantee programme that provides 100 days of work to each household and mandates payment of wages within 15 days of completion of work. MGNREGA has been subject to many technological interventions purported to improve efficiency and transparency. Many of these interventions were introduced without any consultation or scientific piloting resulting in violation of workers’ rights. We focus on two digital interventions. Firstly, in the financial year 2021–22, wage payments of workers were segregated based on their caste. Notwithstanding delays in wage payments, we find there is a statistically significant difference in the time taken to process payments across caste. This provides an empirical corroboration of how this move created caste tensions at worksites. Just in our sample, the compensation as per law that is payable to workers due to delays by the union government alone is ₹399 million. This is neither acknowledged nor paid. Secondly, we demonstrate that there is no statistically significant difference either in timely payment of wages or in payment rejections between the Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS) and the standard account-based methods. Our analysis is based on 31.36 million transactions across 10 states from financial year 2021–22 crawled from the programme’s Management Information System. This is the first large-scale data-based evidence debunking officially stated claims of timely payments due to ABPS. We also examine official government circulars, documents retrieved using Right to Information responses combined with our immersive fieldwork to underscore our findings. In summary, we argue that any digital technology introduced in MGNREGA or any other social policy must be done through a consultative process, independent audits, giving centrality to workers’ rights.

Keywords: NREGA; Aadhaar; Social security; Technological intervention; Direct benefit transfer payments; Budget crunch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s41027-024-00539-9

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