National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS)

Why in News?

• The Union government has made digitally capturing MGNREGA attendance universal from January 1, 2023 through (NMMS).
• From May 16, 2022, capturing attendance via the app was made compulsory for all worksites with 20 or more workers. This required uploading two time-stamped and geotagged photographs of the workers.

National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS)

• About:
• The National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) App was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2021.
• It aimed at bringing more transparency and ensuring proper monitoring of the schemes.
• Significance:
• The NMMS App permits taking real time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGA worksites along with geo-tagged photographs.
• The app helps in increasing citizen oversight of the programme.
• Issues:
• Poor internet connectivity, little access to smartphones and glitches in the app have created a problem in the daily activities of the workers.
• The workers are forced to buy a smartphone which is pushing them to leave the job.

Many workers have complained that the process is very difficult, and they are illiterate.