Overview
- A labourer at an MGNREGA worksite in Komatipalli village was not recognised by the facial‑recognition attendance app after he returned with a shaved head and a coworker placed her hair over his scalp so the system would register him.
- The facial‑recognition system is in active use at the Mahabubabad district site after deployment by the Telangana government to record worker attendance for wage payments.
- Supervisors at the worksite repeatedly tried the app and it failed to match the worker’s profile until the improvised hair fix produced a successful read, showing the system’s sensitivity to changes in appearance.
- The episode exposes an operational risk: relying solely on face scans can cause temporary exclusion or delays that may affect low‑paid workers’ access to daily wages unless reliable fallback methods are provided.
- The incident underlines broader concerns about biometric attendance in public programs and points to a need for clear safeguards, alternate verification options, and vendor explanations for how the system handles appearance changes.