By June 23, 61 lakh registered workers had been deleted, accounting for a net deletion of 1.16% and 2.26% of the total registered workers, citing reasons such as unwillingness to work or fake job cards.
Research group Lib Tech's analysis showed a significant increase in the number of deleted workers, with 5.13 crore deletions in the financial year 2022-23, representing a net deletion rate of 14.28%.
The government claims this is a routine exercise to weed out corruption, but field visits to Kashipur Block in Odisha revealed that genuine beneficiaries have been affected.
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Kashipur Block, with a significant Adivasi population, reported one of the highest MGNREGA deletion rates in the country.
Sugrib Naik's job card was deleted, along with 90 others out of 547 registered MGNREGA workers in his village.
The reason cited for the removal of names in some cases was "not willing to work," although the affected individuals claim that no one had asked them about their willingness to work.
MGNREGA provides employment opportunities at home, which is preferred over migration for additional income to meet basic needs like clothes, education, and medical care.
Sugrib Naik recalls his painful experience of working on a pineapple farm in Kerala, where he faced strenuous work, long hours, and hazardous conditions.
MGNREGA served as his social security net, but now even that support is lost due to the mismatch between his name on the Aadhaar card and job card.
The difference of an additional letter in the name "Sugrib Naik" on the Aadhaar card and "Sugriba Naik" on the job card has led to his exclusion from the beneficiary list.
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