The Union Rural Development Ministry has alerted state governments to the widespread manipulation of the digital attendance system used in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The Ministry issued a 13-page note to state governments on July 8, 2025, detailing at least seven ways the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) platform is allegedly being misused. The government fears that these manipulations undermine the credibility of the digital attendance system and could lead to the misuse of public funds.
The NMMS, which requires workers to upload geo-tagged photographs twice a day (morning and afternoon) to mark attendance, was intended to increase transparency and accountability. However, the Ministry has found instances of "irrelevant or unrelated photographs" being uploaded, "photo-to-photo capturing instead of live work images". Other discrepancies include mismatches in the actual versus recorded worker count, gender composition discrepancies, the same photo of workers appearing on multiple muster rolls, mismatches between morning and afternoon photos, and failures to upload photos in the afternoon.
In response to these issues, the Ministry of Rural Development has ordered a four-layer analog verification system, spanning from the gram panchayat level up to the state level. At the gram panchayat level, 100% verification of present workers is required. The percentage of physical verification of uploaded photographs decreases at higher levels, with 20% random verification at the block level, 10% at the district level, and 5% at the state level. The government is now also allowing edits to muster rolls before wage bills are created, a task previously limited to the District Collector. The Ministry has cautioned that it will not relax its stance on misuse or manipulation of the NMMS.
Experts have raised concerns about the practicality and impact of these measures. Chakradhar Buddha, a senior researcher at LibTech India, noted that the system is shifting from technology-driven to being dependent on manual checks, which defeats the purpose of a digital attendance system. Buddha also questioned the capacity of field staff to verify the thousands of NMMS photos generated daily, especially in Adivasi areas with significant MGNREGA work.
The NMMS app was launched on May 21, 2021, with the goal of increasing transparency and ensuring proper monitoring of the scheme. It requires real-time, photographed, geo-tagged attendance of every worker to be taken twice each day. The app is intended to increase citizen oversight of the program.
However, the app has faced criticism. A parliamentary standing committee asked the rural development ministry to halt the use of the NMMS app until technical glitches are fixed. The committee noted significant failures, especially in offline mode. There are also concerns that the app disproportionately affects women, who make up a significant portion of MGNREGA workers. Women often face challenges due to household chores and care work. A lack of stable network connectivity in rural areas further complicates the implementation of the NMMS.
Some argue that the NMMS undermines the MGNREGA Act by making it difficult for workers to continue working under the scheme. The absence of physical attendance records deprives workers of proof of their attendance and work. In Andhra Pradesh, one village boycotted MGNREGA work for three months after 300 women were marked absent due to app problems.
The Congress party has demanded the scrapping of the digital attendance system, calling it "unworkable" and "counterproductive". They claim the NMMS excludes genuine workers due to internet connectivity issues and other reasons, without effectively checking fake workers.
The Centre may revamp MGNREGS to address leakages and involve states as active stakeholders. The Union government introduced mandatory digital attendance through the National Mobile Monitoring System to ensure wages are paid via Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, aiming to curb leakages.