The year 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of the Digital India Initiative. By July, the government would be celebrating what a success the entire initiative has been. Significant data is projecting an optimistic number of people who would seem to have benefitted from the Initiative. But there are others who have not been able to become citizens of the fast paced, (almost) sci-fi like Digital India.
One such example would include several ration card holders of the country. Of late, the centre has mandated e-KYC for all ration card holders of the country. This is irrespective of whether you claim the ration through the Public Distribution System (PDS) or not. Not having the KYC process completed on time would lead to the automatic deletion of one’s ration card in the digital India. And Rural India is struggling.
The Processes And Associated Challenge
The entire process of an e-KYC, or Electronic-Know Your Customer, involves the verification of details of all customers (or beneficiaries in our case) remotely. As the abbreviation suggests, quality digital access is imperative for such a process. For rural India, there are a couple of ways of getting the process successfully concluded.
One such way involves seeding the aadhaar card at the local Fair Price Shops (FPS). However, there have been irregularities regarding the same in not only the so-called ‘model state of Gujarat’, but also in several other states.
It has been found that the computer operators have been adding incorrect aadhaar details of all the family members who are to benefit from one ration card, leading to deletion of their names.
To my surprise, a person from my own organisation in Bhuj faced a similar issue!
More Processes
The second way involves getting the details verified via the Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE) present in Village Panchayats. The issues surrounding computer systems in the already disconnected and far off regions poses a major challenge to the successful implementation of the process. The slow servers often take a lot of time to load and the website faces constant errors.
Another way for citizens to complete the e-KYC process is by themselves, through websites and even apps. However, owing to poor digital literacy in the country, the easiest sounding option ceases to be functional. It is a task to navigate the complications of the KYC in the first place. One can then only begin to imagine how long and cumbersome the process might be. This becomes more so in the absence of proper internet connections and limited internet data availability.
Finally, other verification and seeding centres are only available at the block level, not at the village level. This means a person may have to travel long distances and sacrifice a day’s income in order to get a simple verification process completed. But it’s not really that simple, is it?
Money Money Money
Rural India also struggles with Aadhaar related issues such as having incorrect details on their card(s). The e-KYC system solely depends on the aadhaar card. These then act as an added hindrance for the citizens to deal with. Once again, such Aadhaar centres are also present only at the block level. The case of updating aadhaar details is again associated with lack of proper documents, issues with biometrics and so on.
Interestingly, if a person was to visit the Mamlatdar (office dealing with revenue matters) on the block level, it is not guaranteed that their work would actually get done, for there is another aspect to it. The Mamlatdar’s office has limited coupons for the number of people who can get their details verified. Given that people from an entire block come to the same office, long queues are common.
These coupled with fixed number of working hours further accelerates the possibility of a disappointing outcome. Such people may also engage in corrupt practices to verify their details the same day at any cost.
Additionally, the operator responsible for verifying the details of such citizens in case the details are incorrect may have to pay a penalty. In order to avoid paying such penalties out of their own pockets, there have been instances where operators are now beginning to charge double the amount required for verification.
In the absence of other better alternatives citizens pay the amount charged. After all, one may have to pay a bigger price for not getting an e-KYC done in the stipulated time period.
“E” Is For Exclusion In The Digital India
The entire concept of One Nation, One Ration Card was supposed to make it easier for migrant workers to access rations from any FPS shops, regardless of where they may be working. But such optimism did not translate into the practical implementation. Migrant workers have faced automatic deletion of ration cards and other government documents.
They have also had to travel to their native place(s) for completing the process of verification, seeding and so on. I highlighted earlier what the cons of travelling to the Block level might be for people at the village levels. This loss becomes manifold for migrants.
Migrant workers often face the challenges associated with lack of proper documents. Getting an e-KYC then becomes an even more of a complicated challenge for those that the state doesn’t seem to favour anywhere. While entire economies have been enjoying cocktails made from the fruits of their labor, all they are faced with are a plethora of challenges while living in deplorable conditions.
The administration’s obsession with digitization in the face of poor digital infrastructures has only contributed to the miseries of all those who are supposed to benefit from such schemes. The biometric systems are not sensitive towards the needs of those not in a position to complete verification process via biometrics. This could be due to issues relating to their eyes, or not having the ‘correct’ thumbs and fingers, and so on.
They are still being adopted seemingly everywhere in order to avail the benefits of our lovely welfare state. Consequently, persons with disabilities have been facing excess delays in such mandatory processes.
Moreover, the elderly, women, and other vulnerable sections of the society have been facing some unique challenges of their own. The e-KYC process was supposed to assist such sections of people remotely. In the presence of the aforementioned challenges however, they have struggled to physically show up at block level offices.
So What Now?
A number of ration cards have been deleted in the past couple of months in digital India. There may be many advantages of the e-KYC. However, the process has resulted in the accidental exclusion of a major chunk of our population. This includes genuine ration card holders as well. How long before this accidental exclusion becomes systemic?
It also makes me question the standards of other One Nation, One Something projects that would soon be a part of our lives. The large masses dependent on ration cards to cater to their basic food rights have been suffering in silence for a while now. Are we supposed to ignore their silence just because the chatter of the government operates on a louder decibel?
The government’s approach to solving such systemic challenges could be two-pronged: creating platforms for emanating digital literacy, while investing further into the digital infrastructure of the country which could be accessed by the populations of those living in the villages, and those belonging to vulnerable sections.
A Poor Way Forward
These digital challenges have not only affected ration schemes, but also pension schemes. How about we start by accepting that aadhaar and such e-KYC processes have led to the social and financial exclusion of the marginalised and the vulnerable. This is a step the government of India has failed to recognise.
Governments often take a merry old time to accept that there are flaws in their precious policies. Then it takes time to change such policies. How should one resist? Protest? Or simply put forth the issues that they have been facing? The sections of people who have been facing such issues do not own windmill farms or telecom businesses. There are not here to act or to attend a global summit.
They are us, coming from families you and I interact with on a daily basis. They are what make up the rest of our society. Why do such issues then go unnoticed? Who gets to be a part of this (Digital) India? Who are its citizens?
These are some of the questions I would like you to leave with. And until the e-KYC issue gets resolved, I suppose the ration card holders would simply be having some cake in the digital India.
Also Read: Bridging The Digital Gap In Rural India
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