New Delhi: The names of about 27 lakh workers were removed from the database of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) amid the Union government’s push to conduct e-KYC between October 10 and November 14 this year, according to The Wire.
The deletions, which Lib Tech, a consortium of activists and academicians termed as ‘unusual’, were higher than the 10.5 lakh additions recorded during the same period.
The electronic know your customer process, carried out for all workers, was aimed at removing ineligible beneficiaries of the scheme, according to The Hindu.
The deletions were totted up to about 15 lakh over the last six months with removals increasing up to 27 lakh in just one month, almost double the total in the previous six months.
It is reported citing Lib Tech’s analysis that MGNREGS recorded net additions of 83.6 lakh workers in the first six months of the financial year 2025-26 against 15.2 lakh deletions, just as 98.8 lakh workers were added.
However by mid-November, net additions fell to 66.5 lakh meaning 17 lakh workers vanished from the database in a single month.
The analysis pointed out that 6 lakh of them were active workers meaning ‘they have worked at least one day in the past three years’.
The states that reported high e-KYC completion rates led the trend in deletions with Andhra Pradesh topping the list with 15.92 lakh deletions after 78.4% of workers completing e-KYC.
Other states that reported large number of deletions include Tamil Nadu with 30,529 deletions, having e-KYC completion rate of 67.6%; Chhattisgarh had 1.04 lakh deletions following 66.6% completion rate of e-KYC.
Senior officials at the Union Ministry of Rural Development reportedly ruled out any link between the e-KYC drive and the deletions.
A top official reportedly said: ‘We have also issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) for the deletion of any job card, which includes putting out the job cards finalised for deletion in public domain, allowing time for the beneficiaries to file an appeal, and a final approval from the gram sabha.’