MGNREGA: 5.20 crore job cards deleted since 2021, more than the 5.00 crore households added

A job card is a rural household’s registration under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: without one, no work and no wages. Asked in the Lok Sabha how many cards had been deleted, the Ministry of Rural Development gave a state-by-state, year-by-year table, and set beside it a figure of its own.

Between 1 January 2021 and 22 July 2026, states deleted 5,20,24,413 job cards, carrying 13,21,52,284 workers. Over what the ministry called “the same period”, it said, 5.00 crore households and 8.30 crore workers were added. On the ministry’s own figures, more job cards were deleted than added, and about 1.6 workers were removed for every one added.

When and where

Deletions peaked in 2023, at 1,94,52,687 job cards. Two states account for 43 per cent of all deletions: Bihar (1,14,20,890) and Uttar Pradesh (1,08,64,559). In Karnataka, 11,77,174 of its 16,80,758 deletions, 70 per cent, came in 2026 alone, up to 22 July 2026.

Why cards were deleted: one reason counted, the rest not

Members asked for the reasons, state and year-wise. The ministry’s answers list them in words: cards are deleted “mainly for the reasons such as fake/duplicate/incorrect job cards, family shifted from Gram Panchayat permanently, Gram Panchayat classified as Urban and there was only one member name in the job card he/she has expired” (answer of 3 February 2026).

Only one answer counts a single reason. On 22 July 2025 the ministry gave the number of cards deleted with the reason “Fake Job Card”: 7,59,362 in 2022-23, 2,89,626 in 2023-24, 58,826 in 2024-25, or 11,07,814 in three years. In the calendar years 2022 to 2024, 3,79,26,141 cards were deleted in all. The periods are not identical, but on the ministry’s own figures, cards recorded as fake are roughly 3 per cent of deletions. For the rest, no reason is counted in any answer we found. The same answer said that data on arrests for violations “like fake job cards is not maintained in the Ministry”.

The label “fake” itself needs care. In Kerala’s figures, given to the Lok Sabha on 9 December 2025, the state explained that NREGASoft had no option to mark a card as a duplicate when it was deleted, so panchayat officials deleted duplicate cards “by giving the reason of fake job cards”. A card recorded as fake may simply have been a duplicate.

What this does and does not show

• A deletion is not evidence of wrongdoing, by the state or by the household. Duplicates, families that moved, panchayats that became urban and deaths are all listed as reasons.
• The deletions are counted by calendar year from January 2021, the additions by financial year from April 2021, so the two periods differ by three months. The ministry nevertheless set them side by side as “the same period”.
• The answers give no figures for cards restored after an appeal.
• The scheme was replaced by the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 from 1 July 2026, the same answer says.

Got it right

Since January 2025 the ministry’s standard procedure for deletions requires a published draft list of cards marked for deletion, verification in the gram sabha, and a right of appeal for affected workers, and it told the Lok Sabha on 9 December 2025 that cards cannot be deleted for the attendance app, Aadhaar-bank linking or e-KYC. Those are the safeguards to hold every deletion to.

Every state and union territory

How we did this

• Source: the Ministry of Rural Development’s answer to Lok Sabha Starred Question 133, answered on 28 July 2026, Annexure-II. Also cited: Unstarred Question 606 (3 February 2026), Unstarred Question 1603 (9 December 2025), Unstarred Question 342 (22 July 2025) and Unstarred Question 1419 (9 December 2025).
• We found these answers by indexing every Lok Sabha answer of the current House and reading every Rural Development answer on job cards.
• Adds up: in both tables, every state’s six years sum to its printed total, and every year’s states sum to the printed national total.
• Download the data: mgnrega-job-cards-deleted-2021-2026.csv. Our method and labels are on the Data Audit method page.

Questions

Corrections

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