The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has launched a project to boost last-mile delivery of welfare schemes in the State.
In late January, the State government launched a 12-digit family identification number scheme wherein data from the 17 government departments has been sought to be collated, information regarding scheme beneficiaries, tallying them with ration and Aadhaar cards and arriving at a household or family identification number. Currently, data for 3.6 crore families and 15 Aadhaar-validated ration card holders are already available in the State, with the ration card number being the family ID number, for those without ration cards, an enrolment process is now under way.
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“We basically found from data from different departments, that in one family, one person was receiving an old age pension, but had no ration card or the family had no ration card. Whereas the criteria for receiving pensions and the ration cards are the same. For example, the social welfare department showed 5.60 lakh beneficiaries of old age pension, but have no ration card. So now we are on to ground work, and getting ration cards made for beneficiaries who don’t have the cards,” said Asim Arun, Minister for Social Welfare.
The scheme is similar to the Kutumba project of the Karnataka government which aims to provide a unique identity to resident families of the State and serves as a repository of the resident attributes, allowing them to suo motu, without documents, access benefits due to them, after the ID has been registered.
“It’s been barely two months since the project is on, we are hoping to provide family IDs to all beneficiary families, and plug any leaks in terms of delivery, as in the case of old age pension holders also getting ration cards, etc.,” said Mr. Arun.
Politically, last-mile connectivity via direct benefit transfer and Aadhaar has been a game changer for the BJP, creating a labarthi or beneficiary class of voters for the party. With the family ID programme, the Yogi Adityanath government wants to ensure that the labarthi is firmly rooted in the BJP camp.
Published - March 19, 2023 04:55 pm IST
