In July 2026, concerns were raised over difficulties faced by workers in Virudhunagar district in recording attendance under the rural employment programme. Workers reportedly encountered problems with biometric/iris-based authentication, and some sought an alternative method so that technical difficulties would not prevent them from having their attendance properly recorded and, consequently, affect their wage payments.
There is an important distinction here: the broader government system for rural-employment attendance has moved toward digital and biometric/face-authenticated attendance, while the specific Virudhunagar complaint concerns difficulties workers experienced with the authentication process.
What is the attendance system?
Attendance under the rural employment programme has increasingly been digitised to improve transparency and ensure that wages are paid for work actually performed.
Under the earlier MGNREGS system, the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) was used to capture worksite attendance through time-stamped and geo-tagged photographs. From January 2023, NMMS-based attendance became applicable to eligible worksites, with provisions for offline capture where connectivity was unavailable.
Following the transition to the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) framework from 1 July 2026, attendance mechanisms include face-authentication-based systems, along with exception provisions intended to prevent genuine workers from losing benefits because of technical or connectivity problems.
What problem did Virudhunagar workers report?
The reported problem was that some workers were unable to get their biometric/iris attendance recorded properly.
Possible difficulties with biometric authentication can include:
- Iris or biometric recognition failing
- Authentication repeatedly being rejected
- Difficulty registering a worker’s biometric details
- Technical problems with the attendance device
- Poor connectivity or synchronization
- Problems linking worker information with the employment record
- Workers having to make repeated attempts before attendance is accepted
For a daily-wage worker, this is a serious issue because attendance is directly connected with the official record of employment and ultimately the processing of wages.
Why are workers asking for an alternative?
Workers’ main concern is that a technical failure should not be treated as absence.
If a person has actually worked but the digital system fails to record the attendance, there is a risk of a mismatch between the work performed and the official attendance record.
Therefore, workers have sought an alternative attendance mechanism for cases where biometric/iris authentication cannot be completed successfully.
The broader national system already recognises this type of problem. The Rural Development Ministry has provided mechanisms for exceptional circumstances in which digital attendance cannot be uploaded, including provisions for authorised officials to upload manual attendance.
Why attendance is important
Attendance is not merely an administrative formality. It forms an important part of the process used to establish that a worker participated in a sanctioned employment worksite.
The basic chain is:
Worker reports for work → attendance is recorded → work participation is verified → wage calculation → wage payment
If attendance is not captured correctly, the subsequent stages can potentially be affected.
Risk of delayed wages
For rural workers who depend on employment-programme wages for household expenses, even a short delay can be significant.
The Union Government has said that digital attendance is intended to improve efficiency and enable wage processing more quickly. Under the NMMS system, wage lists and Fund Transfer Orders can be generated on the same day that attendance is captured.
Consequently, workers are particularly concerned that authentication failures should not result in:
- Missing attendance
- Incorrect absence records
- Delayed wage processing
- Wage disputes
- Repeated visits to government offices
Technical problems are already recognised by the government
The Centre has acknowledged that digital attendance systems can face technical and connectivity problems.
For NMMS, the government introduced an offline attendance facility so that attendance could be captured even when a worksite has poor network connectivity and uploaded later when connectivity becomes available.
The system has also been continuously modified in response to problems reported by states and field-level users.
This is important because rural worksites can be located in areas where mobile connectivity, device performance or authentication conditions are not always reliable.
Special concern for vulnerable workers
The issue is particularly important for workers who may have difficulty completing biometric authentication.
A July 2026 report from Tamil Nadu, for example, documented the case of a visually challenged MGNREGS worker who was denied wages after difficulties with e-KYC and biometric authentication, despite an exemption applicable to persons with disabilities. The case illustrates the wider concern that technological requirements should not unintentionally exclude eligible workers.
This does not establish that the Virudhunagar workers were facing the same circumstances, but it demonstrates why exception mechanisms and proper assistance are important.
What an effective alternative could involve
Where authentication genuinely fails, workers’ demand for an alternative method could be addressed through mechanisms authorised by the programme administration.
Depending on the applicable rules and circumstances, this could involve:
- Properly documented manual attendance
- Authorised exception handling
- Offline attendance capture
- Re-attempting authentication after correcting technical problems
- Updating incorrect worker records
- Assistance from the worksite Mate or local officials
- Escalation of unresolved cases to Block-level authorities
The exact alternative should be authorised by the competent rural-development authorities rather than workers being asked to create their own attendance system.
Grievance redressal
Workers who believe their attendance has not been recorded correctly can raise the matter through the programme’s grievance mechanisms.
The Union Government has stated that MGNREGS complaints can be made through:
- The Gram Panchayat-level complaint register
- CPGRAMS, the Central Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System
- The district-level Ombudsperson
The government has also stated that the programme provides grievance-redressal mechanisms at the Block and District levels.
For a district-level problem such as the one reported in Virudhunagar, the Block Development Office and district rural-development authorities are therefore important points for follow-up.
What workers are seeking
The core demand can be summarised as:
Workers who genuinely attend and perform MGNREGS work should not lose their attendance or wages because a biometric/iris authentication system fails.
They are seeking a reliable backup mechanism that can record attendance when the primary authentication method does not work.
Broader significance
The Virudhunagar issue highlights the challenge of balancing digital transparency with accessibility for rural workers.
Digital attendance can help prevent fraudulent attendance, improve monitoring and speed up wage processing. However, the system also needs effective exception handling so that genuine workers are not disadvantaged by device failures, authentication errors, connectivity problems or other technical barriers.
The government’s current position recognises this need: the March 2026 PIB release specifically states that exception provisions exist to avoid inconvenience to workers and that technical issues are taken up for resolution.