With family ID scheme, Yogi government hopes to bridge last mile delivery on welfare programmes

In late January this year, Uttar Pradesh launched a 12 digit family identification number scheme wherein data from 17 government departments has been sought

Last mile connectivity between beneficiaries and welfare schemes aimed at them has been considered one of the important differentiators between the Narendra Modi government’s implementation of schemes and those of others, with the BJP led Uttar Pradesh government now going a step further.

In late January this year, the State government launched a 12 digit family identification number scheme wherein data from 17 government departments has been sought to be collated, information regarding scheme beneficiaries, tallying them with ration and Aadhar cards and arriving at a household or family identification number. Currently data for 3.6 crore families and 15 Aadhar validated ration card holders is already available in the state, with the ration card number being the family ID number, for those without ration cards, an enrolment process is now underway.

“We basically found from data from different departments, that in one family, one person was receiving old age pension, but had no ration card or the family had no ration card, whereas the criteria for receiving pensions and the ration cards are the same. For example, the social welfare department showed 5.60 lakh beneficiaries of old age pension, but have no ration card, so now we are on to ground truthing, and getting ration cards made for beneficiaries who don’t have the cards,” said Asim Arun, minister for social welfare.

The scheme is similar to the Kutumba project of the Karnataka government which aims to provide a unique identity to resident families of the state and serve as a repository of the resident attributes, allowing them to suo moto, without documents, access benefits due to them, after the ID has been registered.

“Its been barely two months since the project is on, we are hoping to provide family IDs to all beneficary families, and plug any leaks in terms of delivery, as in the case of old age pension holders also getting ration cards, etc,” said Mr Arun.

Politically, last mile connectivity via direct benefit transfer and Aadhar has been a game changer for the BJP, creating a “labarthi” or beneficiary class of voters for the party. With the Family ID programme, the Yogi Adityanath government wants to ensure that the labarthi is firmly rooted in the BJP camp.