Aadhaar-linked payments in rural jobs yet to succeed
Amid the Centre’s rush to expand the scope of Aadhaar, the unique identity-based payment system in rural job scheme is yet to taste success.
The Aadhaar details of 8.58 crore out of 10.2 crore daily wage labourers are available with the rural development ministry. However, only 4.5 crore workers (or, 44%) get daily wages through the system till April 2017.
The figures are part of the ministry’s latest report on digital transactions, which focuses on pushing cashless transactions in rural sector as a part of the government’s overall strategy.
Government sources claim the problem is at the level of the banks which do not have infrastructure to link the Aadhaar numbers in time to the payment system.
“For linking the Aadhaar number with bank account, a worker has to go through an entire process in the bank. Unfortunately, in most of the banks, there are just one or two people doing this linkage. We are in talks with the banks to improve the situation,” said rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha.
The activists, however, are not amused.
“NREGA workers had to make sure that their job card details are aligned with their bank account details as well as Aadhaar card details. Now, they are asked to go back to the banks with their original identification documents so that Aadhaar seeding can be verified. What next - BHIM maybe?” said noted social scientist Jean Dreze.
The government claims that the situation is better from the UPA-era when only 22.69 lakh workers, as against 4.5 crore in Apri l2017, were covered under the Aadhar-based payment system. Dreze alleges that constant redesign of wage payment proc- ess has affected the daily wage labourers.
“MNREGA workers have been tortured for years on end by the constant redesign of wage payment systems. Many of them had to go through three or four rounds of opening of accounts: first with the post office, then with a bank, then with a specific bank, then with a business correspondent. Each step is an ordeal that can last for weeks and hold up their wages. When bank payments were finally settling down, another round of redesign began with the drive towards Aadhaarbased payments,” he said. So, now, we will have a Hackathon for EVMs. Mind you, I am not against it, but regardless of what political parties believe, India has to consider how to lower its election footprint. Is it that paper ballots were never tampered with? Anyone with some understanding of elections will point out how, in remote parts of India, strongmen would stand inside the voting booths and direct voters to vote as per their instructions. You can do that either ways — via an EVM or ballot. You can also capture a booth. It isn’t that paper is particularly superior or foolproof. The