Tech infrastructure making implementation easier; portal for DBT also on cards
In one of the innumerable dingy alleys of Delhi?s Mangol Puri, a north-west Delhi neighbourhood bustling with slums and an abode of the urban poor in the capital, 26-year-old Geeta Kumari is busy attending to the needs of her two sons. She doesn?t know of government schemes and welfare programmes, but she is fully aware that she has been given R3,000 by the state administration under the Indira Gandhi Matrutva Sahayata Yojana (IGMSY)?money that came in two installments and went directly to her bank account. She is all too willing to show us the certificate she received from Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit when the Aadhaar-based direct benefits transfer scheme was launched in the capital?s two districts in early January. Geeta was one of the 50 beneficiaries who received these certificates at the launch function. ?I am happy that the government is helping by giving money to take care of mothers and the child after delivery. I?m illiterate and I don?t know the details of the scheme or how it works. All I know is that this money will come in really handy,? says Geeta, who was registered under the programme during her pregnancy and is yet to receive the third and final installment of R1,000 (the first two installments were of R1,500 each).
Geeta hasn?t withdrawn the money yet as she wants to save it for future use. She?s happy that the cash transfer scheme and the awareness created around it by the local anganwadi workers led to the opening of her bank account along with her Aadhaar card, but finds the process of withdrawing money from a bank account cumbersome. ?The bank is just 15 minutes away, but there is always a rush there. For people like me who can?t read or write, it becomes a task to even try and withdraw money,? she says. Her husband works as a labourer and brings home around R6,000 a month. For this family, an assistance of R4,000 means more than what meets the eye. Seated in her one-room dwelling, which is no bigger than 6×6 feet, Geeta might not understand the macro impact the cash transfer scheme seeks to make, but she does realise the difference it?s making to her life and livelihood, and so keeps her Aadhaar card and her certificate in the locker of her steel almirah.
The ambitious centrally-sponsored Aadhaar-enabled direct cash transfer programme was rolled out in two districts of the capital: north-west and north-east. While the Centre has identified 26 schemes for rollout of the programme, in Delhi, only nine of the 34 are relevant and of these nine, only four have been covered in the first phase. A total of around 12,000 beneficiaries in both these districts?around 10,000 in north-west and the rest in north-east?have been identified for the following four schemes: post-matric scholarship for SC, post-matric scholarship for OBC, IGMSY and Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY). According to Dharam Pal, Delhi?s divisional commissioner and revenue secretary, the Delhi government is planning to bring to its fold all the nine schemes by April. Dikshit also recently made a public statement to this end. When asked about the progress of the scheme and the teething troubles with its implementation, he tells FE that since the number of schemes applicable to Delhi is low and desired technological infrastructure is readily available, it is relatively easy for the state administration to roll out the schemes here.
In north-west Delhi, the pilot district with substantially more beneficiaries than north-east, deputy commissioner Shurbir Singh says special initiatives were taken by the administration to ensure linking of bank accounts with UID (Aadhaar) numbers of the beneficiaries and the process has been completed. But it was no easy task. ?There were many cases in which the beneficiaries had missed out on the Aadhaar application process while it was on. We held special camps so that these beneficiaries could get their Aadhaar registrations done. We?ve been able to ensure that all beneficiaries at least have their Aadhaar enrollment numbers and also have bank accounts in their names,? he says. When the district administration got down to preparing for the rollout sometime in mid-December, around 40% of the beneficiaries were not registered for Aadhaar numbers and many did not have bank accounts either. The state administration then organised camps at 40 sites in association with various banks and UID in the last two weeks of December. Singh adds that while almost all the beneficiaries at least have enrollment numbers now, nine permanent Aadhaar enrollment centres are operational to cover the miniscule number that could not be enrolled earlier.
But an enrollment number does not facilitate a direct cash transfer as an Aadhaar number is a pre-requisite for any such transfer. So won?t it hamper the pilot in Delhi? ?The schemes rolled out as of now are time- or event-based, which means that it?s not a monthly cash subsidy that has to go out. Therefore, we are not expecting any major hiccups in the system as well as the implementation at this stage,? he says. He also tells us that the district administration is working to ensure that the issuing of Aadhaar numbers to those beneficiaries who don?t have them yet is being done on priority. Of around 10,000 beneficiaries in north-west Delhi, almost 7,000 beneficiaries have been identified under the two educational scholarship schemes. Also, the Delhi administration is mulling whether cash should be released for beneficiaries who are awaiting their Aadhaar cards but have enrollment numbers, as it is certain in these cases that an Aadhaar number is on its way. A decision, however, hasn?t been taken yet.
?We are discussing the idea of releasing cash through electronic clearance system (ECS) till the Aadhaar numbers arrive. After that, these beneficiaries could be integrated on the Aadhaar bridge for future payments,? says Singh. Officials also told FE that a portal is being developed by the state NIC (National Informatics Centre) for integration and authentication of all data from departments concerned for all beneficiaries and the portal, in the final stages of completion, should be operational within a week?s time. Officials are hopeful that cash distribution will pick up speed once the portal is operational. The administration is hopeful of ensuring that all beneficiaries receive their dues by the start of the next financial year. For his district, Singh has set himself an ambitious target of meeting the target by early February.
Delhi had gone a step ahead and already implemented the direct transfer programme for its food security scheme Dilli Annashree Yojana in mid-December in which a cash subsidy of R600 is provided to the seniormost woman in vulnerable households. As per official figures, Delhi has a total of 7.5 lakh BPL families, of which only 4.09 lakh are eligible to get ration under public distribution system.
