The eKYC Pain Pushes State Boundaries

The eKYC verification exercise was to remove unwanted beneficiaries from the food security coverage list. It turned out to be a pain, particularly for migrant workers

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More than a month. With the state government rolling out around the same time its flagship Subhadra Yojana, a cash assistance scheme to empower women, the Aadhaar update and eKYC sent hundreds of people back into the queues, heaping miseries, thanks to a lack of clear communication, absence of understanding of the enormous problem, poor technology support for FPS and integration with database of similar national schemes.

In the absence of clear guidelines (in public domain) and with no or little clarity about the place and mode of authentication, there was anxiety and distress among ration cardholders leading to a mad rush to FPS, Jana Seva Kendras and Aadhaar centers for seeding. Chaos reigned supreme with long queues before fair price authenticity.

This, coupled with news stories that foodgrains disbursement will be discontinued if eKYC is not completed within the specified time, led to a situation where people, especially migrant workers, had to dig into their meagre savings to rush back to their villages for the eKYC validation where each member mentioned on the family ration card has to be physically present at the ration shops to authenticate their identity through their Aadhaar card.

However, the FS&CW notification was contrary to the Orissa High Court order which warned the Union and state governments that they cannot deny benefits of welfare schemes to citizens belonging to vulnerable sections just because they do not have an identity proof like Aadhaar card or a mobile phone.

"The unleashing of the eKYC is against the poor, mostly migrant workers. They had to sacrifice their earnings to save their ration card as the process took longer than expected due to a host of problems which were mostly technical. Their schoolgoing children had to abandon classes for days for the authentication, hitting the most marginalised section," alleges Samit Panda, food security activist and state convenor of Campaign for Food.