THE MISSING LINK TO GETTING FOOD SECURITY

NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY ACT, DELHI: UNRELIABLE TECHNOLOGY AND EXCLUSION Central allocation:

In April 2015, Tosif Khan, a fair price shop owner selling subsidised ration under the NFSA received a sleek Point of Sale machine from the Delhi food and civil supplies department. The government was testing new Aadhaar-enabled biometric machines and Khan’s shop in Chandni Chowk had been selected amongst 42 shops for the pilot project. Through the machines, the beneficiaries would get ration after their biometrics matched with those given for Aadhaar. The government claimed it would automatically weed out ghost or fake beneficiaries.

But Khan’s machine developed a snag and stopped charging about a year later. On September 8, he sent a oneline email to the central district’s assistant commissioner of food department, saying, “Sir, device mein charging nahi ho rahi hai” (Sir, the device is not charging). The reply came the same day. The terse email read: “To hum kya karein” (So what should we do?).

After that Khan went back to using manual entries for providing ration – exactly the opposite of what the pilot project was testing.

He wasn’t the only one to face problems. Another shop-owner (speaking on the condition of anonymity) who runs a fair price shop near the Delhi airport told HT that lack of cellphone network was a perpetual problem in operating the machine.

In his case, when the machine developed a fault, the government directed him to the manufacturing company. The company in turn told him that their contract was over and hence they were not responsible. He too, then went back to manual entries.

The failure rate of the government pilot was more than 50 per cent – of the 42 shops where the machines were tested, only 18 remained till the end. Yet, the Delhi government is about to roll out mandatory use of machines at all fair price shops from November.

Delhi Food Commissioner, KR Meena dismissed these as standalone examples. He said there was not enough awareness within the department since the pilot was limited. “Last time, our contract with the company was only for a year, so there were maintenance issues with the machines. This time we have a five-year contract with BHEL. They will be required to provide repair work within two hours of any complaint,” he said.

But the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan says that unreliable machines point to a bigger problem – people who don’t get ration due to biometric failures or mismatch.

They estimate that in Delhi about 12 per cent of eligible beneficiaries may have been excluded in one year because of biometric failure. But the state government says they have no data on it.

To address the problems posed by the machines tested, the government is banking on more advanced ones. Meena says, “With the new machine, if fingerprint biometrics don’t match, there will be an iris scan mechanism. If even that doesn’t work, then a mobile-based pin system will be used where a one-time password will be sent to the beneficiary’s phone number.”

Slamming this, Anjali Bhardwaj of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, says reliance on untested technology to curb corruption is misplaced. “The pilot of the Delhi government showed several problems – including network connectivity, biometric failures and without explaining how these issues have been addressed they are scaling it up.”

But exclusion is not caused by machine failures alone. Thirty-year-old Anita, living in a slum in south Delhi has spent three years trying to get ration for her autistic son, Nitin. The nine-year-old child did not have an Aadhaar card when Anita applied.

She is unable to take up a job as Nitin cannot be left alone. The family depends on the erratic income of her husband who works as a labourer and monthly subsidised food grains. Anita made three trips to an Aadhaar enrolment centre before the child could give his biometrics.

“He used to get scared of the machine and run away. But after all that effort when the Aadhaar card came, I was told his name still cannot be added to the ration card as the quota was full,” says Anita as she tries to hold Nitin in her lap. She was also unable to avail disability benefits for Nitin due to lack of Aadhaar.

Several such stories came to light when the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan took the government to court in February this year against Aadhaar being made mandatory for ration.

The Delhi High Court in September directed the government to start providing ration to Anita’s children, along with 40 other affected families.

A relieved Anita asks, “Gareeb ka khana ek card ki wajah se lekar sarkar ko kya fayda hua?” (How has the government benefited by taking food from a poor person because of a card?)