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Vijayawada: The government of Andhra Pradesh has instructed the principals of all medical colleges to implement a biometric attendance system for recording the attendance of professors, assistant professors, and residential medical officers. Following the discovery by the National Medical Commission (NMC) that the previous facial recognition attendance system was being tampered with, the government made the decision. This system had faced criticism from the state's teacher unions in 2022. Under the new biometric attendance system, professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and resident medical officers are required to provide their biometrics twice a day to record their attendance. The linkage between the attendance system and the payroll system will guarantee salary payments for employees who maintain a monthly attendance rate exceeding 75 percent. The report states that the anticipated impact of the new system is to instill greater discipline among teaching hospital faculty and deter government doctors from unlawfully attending work at their private clinics and corporate hospitals. The NMC discovered that under the facial recognition attendance system, certain doctors would exit the college premises after registering their attendance via mobile, engaging in private practice. This prompted the authorities to revert to the previous system. While states such as Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya have embraced the concept of a facial-recognition-based attendance system in recent years, it is intriguing that the teachers and professors, for whom this system is being considered, do not appear enthusiastic about the idea. In 2022, numerous teacher unions in the state voiced opposition to the concept of facial recognition-based attendance. The Times of India reported teachers' grievances, citing instances where a delay of just one minute in registering on the facial recognition-based system resulted in the concerned teacher losing half a day's salary. Privacy concerns regarding the installation of the app on personal devices were also raised by organizations such as the Federation of AP Teachers Organisations, AP Teachers Federation, State Teachers Union, and others. Around the same period, an individual employed at Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University contested a university directive that mandated the use of facial recognition for biometric attendance verification of teaching staff. Dr. Suvijna Awasthi expressed concerns about workplace surveillance as she approached the Allahabad High Court. In the same timeframe, Professor Anupam Guha of the Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies at IIT Bombay contended that using facial recognition for monitoring purposes could be seen as a fundamental violation of the right to life with dignity. Constant surveillance, such as through facial recognition, can impede employee agency in the workplace, potentially impacting productivity.