“No photo, no pay” – this has become the new reality for MGNREGS workers. A recent government circular has doubled down on the use of the NREGA Mobile Monitoring System or NMMS attendance app, tightening rules that many argue were already unfair and impractical. In May 2022, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) made the NMMS app mandatory for recording MGNREGS workers’ attendance. Civil society organisations, trade unions, and field researchers immediately raised red flags: the app was exclusionary, buggy, and incompatible with ground realities.The ministry’s initial response offered little clarity and delays, denials, and a lack of transparency marked the early phase.Two years later, in July 2025, MoRD has quietly acknowledged what workers have long been saying. A new circular reveals widespread misuse of NMMS: photographs of photographs, irrelevant images, mismatched attendance data, and afternoon sessions being skipped entirely. But instead of pausing and reflecting, the Ministry has issued yet another technocratic directive – burdening panchayats and block officials with photo verification, data storage, and compliance reporting, all without any additional staff or infrastructure.The story of NMMS is not just about a failing app. It’s about how governance has come to mean surveillance without support, digital enforcement without deliberation, and technological control without accountability. How the NMMS app worksThe NMMS app is used by MGNREGS worksite supervisors (‘Mates’) to capture two time-stamped, geotagged photographs of workers – once at the beginning of the workday and again at the end. The app requires an active internet connection for uploading the images, although photos can be clicked offline and stored temporarily. If the afternoon photo is not uploaded, workers risk losing part or all of their wage – even if they have completed the task. What the new circular mandatesOn July 8, 2025, the Ministry of Rural Development issued a circular introducing a stricter NMMS attendance protocol with several new mandates. Workers would now be paid full wages only if two geotagged photos, one at the start and one at the end of the workday, are uploaded. If only one photo is uploaded, only 50% of the wage will be paid. No photo means no wages. The circular also requires Gram Panchayats to verify 100% of photos uploaded daily, while blocks, districts, and states must conduct cross-verifications at 20%, 10%, and 5% levels respectively. All verified photos must be stored for at least one year or until a social audit is conducted, placing significant storage and digital infrastructure demands on local bodies. It also formalises a dashboard-based tracking system and silently removes earlier exemptions that had allowed manual attendance for worksites with fewer than 20 workers.Earlier, worksites with fewer than 20 workers in low-connectivity areas were exempt from using the NMMS app. However, this exemption was quietly withdrawn some time ago when NMMS 2.0 was introduced – not in the July 2025 circular. The new circular merely doubles down on compliance, asking Mates to upload screenshots or ticket numbers even when the app fails.This is a deeply unfair burden placed on those least equipped to manage it. It penalises workers and frontline functionaries for failures that stem from poor infrastructure, not intent. In tribal areas like the Nallamala forest, where Chenchu communities reside, the app’s unreliability has led to complete withdrawal of work. I have learnt that the MGNREGS is simply not being offered anymore, because officials fear the wage liabilities caused by app glitches.Also read: Loopholes in the NMMS App, Aadhaar-Based Payment System Delaying MGNREGA Workers’ Wages: ReportWhither pilot?When NMMS was first launched, the ministry claimed it had been piloted. I filed a Right to Information (RTI) request asking for documentation of this pilot. The response I received was unequivocal: “No information available.”Only later, when others filed similar RTIs, did the ministry respond saying the pilot was conducted in Rajasthan. Either the pilot was conducted after the app had already been rolled out, or the ministry has been inexplicably evasive.This sets the tone for how NMMS has been implemented throughout: without consultation with workers, trade unions, civil society, or even state-level officials. And the same applies to the July 2025 circular too, issued without dialogue and dumped onto an already overburdened system.Compliance without capacityAs noted before, the new rules require officials at every level – gram panchayat, block, district, and state – to verify hundreds of NMMS-uploaded photographs each day. These images must then be downloaded and stored for one full year as documentary proof.This is a massive task. Yet the ministry has made no provision for additional resources – neither staff, training, nor infrastructure – despite the massive scale of daily verification required. And yet, they are now the custodians of a digital surveillance system with no backend support.What was meant to be a technology-driven, corruption-resistant system is now entirely dependent on manual checks by frontline workers. It undermines the rationale behind adopting a digital solution in the first place. The government’s directions will be difficult to comply with. During the summer months, especially in Adivasi areas where large-scale MGNREGS work takes place, thousands of NMMS photos are generated daily. Verifying these images demands staff capacity and technical infrastructure that simply don’t exist on the ground. Erasing MGNREGS’ foundational principlesPerhaps the most disturbing part of the new rules is how they upend the logic of the MGNREGA itself.MGNREGS is a task-based employment programme. Workers are paid according to the amount of work completed and not the number of hours spent, and certainly not the number of photos taken. If a worker finishes 50% of the assigned task, they receive 50% of the wage. That is how dignity and flexibility were built into the Act.But the new circular now ties wages to the NMMS photos. Under the new circular, full wages require both photos and task completion. One photo means half wage, even if the full task was done. No photo spells a day of work but no wage. This logic punishes workers for connectivity failures, not effort.The absurdity of this logic raises a serious question: if a worker does no work but manages to appear in two photos, will they be paid in full? If a worker completes the task but a photo fails to upload due to poor signal, are they worth only half?A policy of distrustThe NMMS app is built on a foundational mistrust of workers. It assumes fraud, imposes surveillance, and makes compliance nearly impossible while offering no redress for those excluded.At the same time, there is no mechanism to verify the lakhs of photos clicked daily. The app accepts anything, a tree, a blank wall, a reused human image, and workers have no way to check whether their photo has been uploaded or rejected. The system is opaque and unchallengeable.Although the uploaded photos are available for 15 days since the work has happened on the MGNREGA Management Information System, it is quite difficult for workers to actually check the data. Most workers have limited access to smartphones or digital literacy, making it practically impossible for them to verify whether their attendance has been correctly recorded.Civil society groups have proposed alternatives: retain physical muster rolls, allow offline capture of attendance in no-network areas, and most importantly, bring NMMS under the purview of social audits. But the ministry has ignored all of it.What needs to changeThe NMMS app must be paused immediately. Its future should be decided only after extensive consultations with workers, states, and civil society, and guarantees of basic infrastructure (smartphones, network, data support). The government needs to set up redress mechanisms to challenge wrongful absences and bring back task-based wage assessment.The app needs to be integrated with social audit mechanisms to ensure real accountability.The NMMS is not a reform but policy failure dressed as innovation. It punishes workers for the system’s shortcomings and shifts the burden of compliance onto the weakest shoulders. In regions like Adilabad, Mandla, and Nallamala, the app has not improved transparency – it has replaced work with paperwork, and trust with surveillance. If this is the future of welfare, then it is one built on exclusion, not justice.Chakradhar Buddha is associated with LibTech India, an action research and advocacy collective dedicated to enhancing the delivery of public services. The opinions expressed in this article are his own.