PayDash: Improving Last-Mile Access to Information on MGNREGA Payments

The Challenge: Timely Information to Process MGNREGA Wage Payments

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the central social protection scheme for the rural poor across India, providing work to tens of millions of poor households across the country each year. While payment infrastructure has greatly benefited from investments in digital financial systems, the payment process is relatively complicated to track in real-time, and busy officers must juggle many priorities alongside payment processing. When wages are delayed, vulnerable workers may struggle to address a rejected payment or opt not to participate in MGNREGA in the future. 

Can providing the right information about payments to busy officers, at the right time and in a useful format, reduce workloads and improve program delivery?