The Indian Express: New Delhi: Thursday, January 11, 2018.
In September
2017, 11-year-old Santoshi, resident of Simdega district of Jharkhand,
succumbed to starvation. According to her mother, she died “asking for rice, but
there was not a single grain at home”. She was deprived of her subsidised
ration as her family’s ration card was cancelled because it was not linked to
Aadhaar. Marandi in Jharkhand met the same fate he could not avail of his share
of ration supplies since his Aadhaar Based Biometric Authentication (ABBA)
failed. Similar cases of starvation deaths have been reported from other states
too, including Shakina Ashfaq from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, who could not
present herself at the ration shop for ABBA due to ill health.
When the
Narendra Modi government came to power riding on the promise of fighting
corruption and ensuring effective service delivery, it was assumed that it will
put in place a strong anti-corruption and grievance redress framework to ensure
that no one is denied their rightful entitlements. However, instead of
operationalising anti-corruption legislation like the Lokpal or implementing
the grievance redress and social audit provisions in various laws, the
government has been pushing Aadhaar as the ultimate solution to corruption.
This is
inexplicable as Aadhaar can, at best, tackle only identity fraud, where an
individual colludes with the system to be included multiple times in the list
of beneficiaries. This accounts for a tiny proportion of corruption. In
programmes like the PDS, the major reason for corruption is quantity and
quality fraud with ration shopkeepers refusing to give people their full share
of rations or pilfering good quality foodgrain and replacing them with poor quality
stock. Aadhaar can do nothing to tackle this corruption, which can only be
eradicated through greater transparency and effective accountability measures.
There is
overwhelming evidence to show that mandatory linking of Aadhaar to ration cards
has led to large-scale exclusions from benefits guaranteed under the National
Food Security Act. Those who are not enrolled in the Aadhaar database are
unable to apply for ration cards. Even if someone has an Aadhaar number, but it
is not “linked”, benefits are denied. Finally, in states like Jharkhand and
Rajasthan where Point-of-Sale devices have been installed in fair price shops,
if the biometrics of beneficiaries don’t match or the cardholder cannot be
present in person, they are unable to access their entitlements.
Instead of
recognising and rectifying the problem, the government has been brazenly
labelling those who are excluded due to Aadhaar as “bogus”, proudly claiming as
“savings” the funds saved from denying basic services to the most vulnerable.
On February
7, 2017, PM Modi said in Parliament that using Aadhaar and technology, in
two-and-a-half years his government had discovered “nearly 4 crore, meaning
3.95 crore bogus ration cards” which resulted in savings of about Rs 14,000
crore. The PM, however, did not provide any details of “bogus” cardholders. An
RTI filed to the PMO seeking a state-wise break-up of bogus cards and the names
of bogus card-holders revealed there was no evidence to back the claims.
The PM’s
speech was subsequently corrected to state, “nearly 4 crore, meaning 2.33 crore
bogus ration cards were found”, presumably to bring the figure in line with
information provided by the Union food minister in response to a Parliamentary
question in which a state-wise break-up of bogus ration cards was given. The
figures provided by the minister, however, also did not match with the data
disclosed by various states under the RTI Act. For instance, for Odisha while
the minister quoted a figure of more than 7 lakh bogus ration cards, under the
RTI Act the state food department replied that there were no bogus ration cards
in the state. For Jharkhand, the minister quoted a figure of almost 8,000 bogus
ration cards, while the state food department held that “this information is
not available in the department”. Interestingly, the PM was silent on whether
action was taken against corrupt officials who made “bogus” cards.
In the Global
Hunger Index 2017, India ranked 100 among 119 countries. The question is:
Instead of ensuring delivery of essential foodgrains, can the country afford to
adopt systems which exclude the most vulnerable?
A government
intent on tackling corruption should put in place effective and strong
institutions which empower people to report corruption and seek accountability
from the executive. It should not treat people as thieves unless they can prove
their innocence, in this case by getting an Aadhaar number to show that they
are genuine and not “ghosts”.
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