NREGA Sangharsh Morcha demands rollback of NMMS App, restoration of workers’ rights

By A Representative 

The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM) has strongly demanded the immediate revocation of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App used for recording workers’ attendance under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Citing the Union Ministry of Rural Development’s (MoRD) July 8, 2025 directive acknowledging widespread misuse and discrepancies in the NMMS App, NSM accused the government of admitting to deep-rooted corruption while continuing to impose a failed digital system.

NSM criticised the app for placing unreasonable demands on NREGA Mates—most of whom are rural women with limited digital literacy—requiring them to own smartphones, pay for internet, and navigate a bug-ridden app to upload daily worksite photographs. Given the poor internet infrastructure in rural areas, this process is often impractical and results in attendance failures, leading to workers being denied wages for work they have already completed. Many workers have reportedly left the scheme due to the distress caused by technical errors and wage denials.

Despite these issues, the Centre has shifted blame to state and local administrations instead of accepting the failure of the centralised digital system. NSM argued that the NMMS App represents an attempt by the Union government to centralise the implementation of a fundamentally decentralised law. It further pointed out that centralised digital mechanisms like NMMS have only introduced additional layers of opacity and exclusion, failing to curb corruption and instead exacerbating the crisis.

The MoRD circular’s direction to form NMMS Monitoring Cells without additional staff or funding was also slammed by NSM as unrealistic and exploitative, given the already overburdened and underpaid rural administrative workforce. The punitive measures proposed—such as denial of full wages if photo uploads fail, regardless of fault—were termed as "administrative cruelty."

NSM highlighted that the implementation of the NMMS App has dismantled key accountability mechanisms such as physical muster rolls and Social Audits. Prior to May 16, 2022, daily attendance was recorded on-site by Mates in physical registers accessible to workers. With the shift to digital-only attendance, transparency has suffered and workers are now unable to verify their own attendance. Social audits, a legally mandated tool for public oversight, have also been sidelined, with no clarity from MoRD on funding or performance of state audit units.

Reiterating its stand, NSM demanded that the NMMS App be revoked immediately, physical muster rolls be reinstated at all worksites, and physical attendance slips be issued to each worker. It also called for the strengthening of decentralised Social Audit systems with proper funding and staffing, release of all pending wages, and immediate resumption of MGNREGA work in West Bengal. NSM maintained that genuine accountability must be grounded in democratic and participatory processes, not imposed through flawed technological fixes.

The statement was jointly supported by over 30 allied organisations across the country, including Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Jharkhand NREGA Watch, and the Right to Food Campaign.