List of 16 Lakh MGNREGA Workers Released
Government says deletions due to duplicates, migration, and deaths; Opposition raises concerns over Aadhaar-linked verification
New Delhi, Dec 19: In the 36 days leading up to the introduction of the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G) Bill, 2025, more than 16.3 lakh workers were removed from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) rolls, official data revealed. The figures, covering the period between October 10 and November 14, have raised concerns among rural labourers and experts about potential exclusion from a scheme that guarantees the right to work.
Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan provided the data in the Lok Sabha in response to queries from Samajwadi Party MPs Lalji Verma and Anand Bhadauriya. He clarified that deletion of job cards is a routine process under MGNREGS rules, carried out by state governments.
According to Paswan, removals were largely due to fake or duplicate job cards, permanent migration of workers, urban reclassification of panchayats, and deaths. He stressed that digital verification processes, such as the Aadhaar-based e-KYC, were not responsible for the deletions.
However, opposition parties have raised concerns that the recent wave of deletions coincides with the tightening of Aadhaar-linked e-KYC compliance earlier this year. Some reports suggest that as many as 27 lakh workers may have been removed in the same period due to stricter verification requirements.
Paswan noted that over 56 per cent of active MGNREGA workers had completed e-KYC by November, and nearly 99.7 per cent of active records were already Aadhaar-verified. Officials emphasized that e-KYC aims to simplify verification and prevent fraud, not to deny work or wages to genuine workers.
The deletion figures form part of an ongoing trend. Since 2019–20, millions of job cards have been regularly removed and added nationwide, with over 3.85 million job cards deleted in 2024–25 alone, while tens of millions were added. The government has issued standard operating procedures to ensure transparent deletions and reinstatements, including draft lists, gram sabha verification, appeal rights, and grievance redress mechanisms to protect eligible workers.
