e-KYC-based authentication is increasingly used to deliver welfare benefits digitally. Critically examine the tension between digital verification requirements and statutory entitlements, with reference to VB-G RAM G.

The Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, which repealed MGNREGA, 2005 from 1 July 2026, guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household as a statutory right [1]. e-KYC strengthens the delivery of that right, but cannot be allowed to become a gate on it.

Case for digital authentication

• De-duplication: authentication of over 10 crore active workers removes ghost and duplicate job cards, protecting wage funds [4].
• Transparency: verified identity underpins direct wage credit to the worker's own account, cutting intermediary leakage.
• Portability and traceability: a clean database supports migration-linked work demand and faster grievance tracking.

Where it collides with the entitlement

• The entitlement flows from the Act itself — application, work within a stipulated period, else unemployment allowance [2]. An administrative authentication norm cannot add a fresh eligibility condition to a legislated right.
• Exclusion error: reporting flagged about 57 lakh active workers with pending e-KYC [4]. Biometric failure, seasonal migration, ageing hands and weak rural connectivity fall hardest on the poorest — the very group the Act targets.
• Inverted burden: the State's verification backlog penalises the claimant, not the administration.
• Federal capacity gap: field-level e-KYC facilitation rests with State Governments [3], so uneven administrative capacity translates into uneven access to a national right.

How VB-G RAM G reconciles the two

• Workers are not to be denied employment merely for pending e-KYC, with an exception mechanism for work demand and allotment [3].
• Existing e-KYC-verified MGNREGA job cards stay valid until Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Cards are issued, and those without cards may still register at the Gram Panchayat [3].

The transition shows that digital verification and statutory entitlement need not be adversarial if authentication is treated as a back-end audit tool rather than a front-desk filter. Institutionalising the exception route, offline and assisted verification, and social audit of rejections would align the Act with the Directive Principle of the right to work under Article 41.