Massive spike in MGNREGS deletions as 27 lakh workers removed in one month

New Delhi: A sharp and unexpected spike in deletions from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has raised concern after a new report recorded the removal of around 27 lakh workers nationwide between October 10 and November 14. The six-monthly assessment by Lib Tech India called the volume of deletions “highly unusual” and noted that the period coincided with new authentication requirements for workers.

According to the consortium of academicians and activists, the purge unfolded at the same time that the Union Rural Development Ministry made electronic-Know Your Customer mandatory for all active workers from November 1, 2025. The report noted that although roughly 10.5 lakh new workers were added to the database during the same period, the scale of deletions overshadowed those additions. “Such a large volume of deletions concentrated in one month is highly unusual,” the report said.

MGNREGS, known widely as MGNREGA, guarantees at least 100 days of wage employment annually to rural households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual labour. The scheme has one of the country’s largest beneficiary databases, which is continually updated by states and Union Territories.

The Lib Tech India assessment observed that the year began with steady expansion. National data for April to September in the 2025-26 financial year showed around 15.2 lakh deletions and 98.8 lakh additions, leading to net growth of 83.6 lakh workers. By the end of September, this trend held firm, but the sudden deletions in October and early November reversed the gains substantially. Net additions fell to 66.5 lakh by November 14. “This means the system effectively lost around 17 lakh net workers in one month, a dramatic reversal of the previous trend,” the report said.

In addition to overall deletions, the report highlighted a dip in active workers. It stated that around six lakh individuals who had obtained employment under the scheme at least once in the last three years were no longer classified as active. “This indicates that even workers who are currently participating in the programme are getting affected,” the report noted.

The Rural Development Ministry has maintained that e-KYC is intended to remove ineligible or duplicate entries. A senior official, responding to queries on the report, said e-KYC cannot be linked directly with job card deletions and clarified that job cards are not removed due to incompatibility with e-KYC or the Aadhaar-Based Payment System. The official said deletions are part of regular housekeeping undertaken by states and UTs.

Even so, the report pointed out that the spike occurred during the period when ABPS was being enforced. The payment system requires Aadhaar details to be seeded with the job card and bank account and mapped with the National Payments Corporation of India database along with the bank’s institutional identification number. MGNREGS job card deletions have seen steep increases earlier as well. Government data presented in the Lok Sabha in December 2023 showed that job cards covering over 5.48 crore workers were deleted in 2022-23, a jump of 267 per cent compared to 2020-21, when 1,49,31,801 workers were deleted. ABPS was first introduced in 2016 as optional but became mandatory on January 1, 2024.

Lib Tech India said that while deletion patterns vary across states, trends are pronounced in those with high e-KYC completion. Andhra Pradesh, with 78.4 per cent e-KYC completion, recorded 15,92,903 deletions. Tamil Nadu, with 67.6 per cent completion, saw 30,529 deletions, while Chhattisgarh, at 66.6 per cent completion, reported 1,04,310 deletions.

Official statistics show that e-KYC has been completed for around 39.81 per cent of all workers under MGNREGS and for 55.01 per cent of active workers. The ministry’s website lists 27,64,56,185 total workers, with Aadhaar seeding completed for 22,94,69,620 of them. Out of 12,17,48,395 active workers, Aadhaar seeding has been done for 12,13,41,804.