An Indian state used citizens’ data on political beliefs to deny benefits
Al Jazeera
Andhra Pradesh’s governing party weaponised data to wrongfully deny welfare benefits to opposition-inclined voters.
Vijayawada, India – As soon as Meda Ramana was elected the head of Garapadu village council in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, several residents complained to her of being wrongfully excluded from government welfare schemes.
About 50 villagers – mostly women of the Dalit, Indigenous and religious-minority communities – told her in early 2021 that their annual welfare benefits, of 10,000 rupees ($119) to 120,000 rupees ($1,430), under various schemes, had been abruptly stopped by the state government.
At first glance, it seemed to be an innocuous data entry error. But when Ramana enquired about the reasons, staff at the village secretariat told her the villagers were ineligible for the welfare because they had “migrated”. Ramana told the secretariat that the complainants were very much living there, but to no avail.
She then complained to higher officials in the district administration who ordered the village staff to conduct a probe. But the village staff ignored those directives. It was at this point that Ramana began to smell a political ploy.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the two states that held regional elections in May 2024, during the time of India’s national poll that re-elected the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Andhra Pradesh state election was fought between two dominant regional parties – the incumbent YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
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