{"id":192522,"date":"2022-06-25T19:38:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T14:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=192522"},"modified":"2022-06-25T19:39:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T14:09:30","slug":"the-advent-of-app-solute-chaos-in-nrega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-advent-of-app-solute-chaos-in-nrega\/","title":{"rendered":"The advent of \u2018app-solute\u2019 chaos in NREGA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: In 2021, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) launched the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app. It was aimed at<\/strong> \u201cimproving citizen oversight and increasing transparency\u201d in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) works.<\/p>\n

Objectives of the app<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It would ensure proper monitoring of the schemes with the purpose of increasing \u201ccitizen oversight<\/strong>\u201d or transparency <\/strong>in the implementation of the scheme. In addition to this, it will potentially enable processing payments faster<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are the main feature of the app<\/strong>?<\/h5>\n

It is to be used by the NREGA Mates, local women at the panchayat level who are selected, trained and deployed to monitor NREGA worksites.<\/p>\n

It would ensure monitoring the attendance of workers through real-time, photographed<\/strong>, geo-tagged attendance<\/strong>. The attendance will be taken once in each half of the day.<\/p>\n

The MORD made it mandatory for all NREGA worksites to employ more than 20 workers. The workers have no option for manual attendance other than in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n

Benefits<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It would address the corruption which has been a rising problem<\/strong> in NREGA as the funds are being siphoned off by faking attendance records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are the issues with the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It can monitor the attendance of workers<\/strong> who have fixed work timings, which is found only in some states. However, in most states, NREGA wages are calculated based on the amount of work done each day. Workers do not need to commit to fixed hours.<\/p>\n

NREGA app mandates marking attendance for the workers who are at the worksite<\/strong> the entire day<\/strong>. It will cause significant difficulty for NREGA workers who may finish her\/his work early, and go to take care of other work for the remaining day, say tea stall or home chores.<\/p>\n

It mandates the worker to be present at the worksite all day or travel twice to mark her attendance.<\/p>\n

It will create hurdles for women. They will have to choose between their\u00a0traditional burden of household chores and care work and NREGA work. Around 54.7% of the NREGA workers were women workers <\/strong>in FY 2021-22. It will decrease their participation.<\/p>\n

Implementation challenges<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There is a lack of a stable network<\/strong> in rural India. Thus, many workers won\u2019t be able to mark their attendance, and would lose a day of wages. For example, Kerala and Jharkhand recorded such cases.<\/p>\n

The differently-abled NREGA workers<\/strong> may find it difficult to mark attendance. For example, it was experienced in Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n

While selecting NREGA mates, smartphone-owning men<\/strong> are likely to be given preference over women having no smartphone<\/strong>. It is mandatory for the NREGA Mates<\/strong> to have a smartphone. For example, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh have seen such cases.<\/p>\n

The training<\/strong> to use the app has been inadequately<\/strong> given to the mates. This could lead to errors<\/strong> in recording workers\u2019 attendance<\/strong>, which ultimately results in delayed or non-payments<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The intended purpose<\/strong> of such an application<\/strong>\u00a0and its effectiveness<\/strong> remains unclear. There would be no physical attendance records<\/strong>, and workers have no proof of their attendance and work done. For example, In the West Singhbhum District, Jharkhand<\/strong>, workers could not establish their attendance and work done since there was no physical record as evidence.<\/p>\n

The MORD has neither provided much clarity<\/strong> on the magnitude of the corruption<\/strong> in NREGA nor the manner in which the NMMS addresses it. There are no parameters<\/strong> to assess the app\u2019s performance, either on transparency or on quicker processed payments.<\/p>\n

The NMMS is consequently blind to the actual functioning<\/strong> of NREGA on the ground.<\/p>\n

The Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Instead of focusing on this app<\/strong> or introducing other complex technological reforms<\/strong>, the government should strengthen social audits<\/strong>, which have worked well in the past.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cThe advent of \u2018app-solute\u2019 chaos in NREGA\u201d<\/strong> published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d<\/strong> on 25th<\/sup> June 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: In 2021, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) launched the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app. It was aimed at \u201cimproving citizen oversight and increasing transparency\u201d in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) works. Objectives of the app It would ensure proper monitoring of the schemes with the purpose of increasing \u201ccitizen oversight\u201d or… Continue reading The advent of \u2018app-solute\u2019 chaos in NREGA<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-192522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704919293},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}