13-hour wait for direct benefit transfers in Ranchi

People in Nagri Block in Jharkhand have to wait for around 13 hours on average to be able to withdraw cash received through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme and buy rice from the public distribution system (PDS), a new government study released on Thursday found.

The study, conducted by social audit unit of the Jharkhand government analysed the performance of the DBT system from October 2017 to March 2018. It found that overall 91,756 hours were spent by 6,993 beneficiaries in the withdrawal of DBT and purchase of rice from the PDS.

Even as a vast majority of people had to spend less than 24 hours, the average time spent by each person is high, partly because some people had to spend up to 96 hours in the wait to claim the benefits that are guaranteed to them under the National Food Security Act.

As a matter of fact, the study found that people are so unsatisfied with the DBT system being piloted by the government that they want to return to the previous system of grains distribution through PDS at ~1 per kg. Almost 96.9 per cent of people said that they would prefer the previous system as opposed to DBT, while only 2.4 per cent of respondents said that they like DBT instead.

In a direct indictment of the government’s efforts to boost direct transfers by carrying out pilots in states like Jharkhand, the study found that all 38 surveyed gram sabhas out of a total 46 villages unanimously rejected DBT, while the other eight were not surveyed. Only two gram sabhas said that DBT could be acceptable, but only after a complete operational overhaul.