MGNREGA Full ABP conversion

The MoRD is trying heart and soul for converting all MGNREGA workers into ABP (AADHAAR Based Payment) mode for oayment of wages under DBT scheme. Its under active consideration that for the districts which has larger number of beneficiary AADHAAR seeded into the MIS database, may be selected for pilot district for full DBT/ABP districts. That means for those districts payment of MGNREGA wages to the beneficiaries accont will only be processed by the AEPS (AADHAAR Enabled Payment System) of NPCI (National Payment Corporation of India). So, it that perspective the bank account may play second role for getting the wage credited to the account. Instead the AADHAAR plays the vital role. But is it really possible to achieve MGNREGA full ABP conversion in the present circumstances? To get an overview lets explore how ABP works and what are the limitations of the MGNREGA software and the banks.

How ABP works?

Here I am explaining it with the simpliest step-by-step approach.

1. Government relaeses payment towards X.
2. The Sponsor Bank (the bank which releases the payment) sends the request to NPCI to credit the amount towards AADHAAR No 0000 0000 0000 (Not Account Number).
3. NPCI searches this AADHAAR number in NPCI Mapper and finds corresponding account details.
4. Based on the account details retrieved NPCI forward the request to the Bank Switch, which is handled by RBI.
5. Based on the IFSC code and account number, the bank switch then forwards the credit request to the concerned bank’s CBS.
6. The beneficiary bank’s system credit the amout to the beneficiary account.

The main process may contain more complex steps which is beyond discussion here. But the basic functioning is described here.

Actual Process of AADHAAR Based Payment (ABP) Image Courtesy : UIDAI

So, the 6 six steps mentioned above there is little scope for account number and no scope for beneficiary name to make any importance in the process.