Digital governance and the reconstruction of the Indian anti-poverty system

Abstract

On a global scale, programmes of social protection for the poor are becoming increasingly computerised, and architectures of biometric recognition are being widely used in this respect. I research how these architectures, adopted in anti-poverty systems, structure ways to ‘see the state’ for citizens living in poverty. To do so I study India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) in Kerala, which is augmenting its main food security scheme with the computerised recognition of its users. In the government’s narrative, biometric technology is depicted as an optimal solution to the illicit diversion of PDS goods on the market. Nevertheless, according to the multiple narratives collected across the state, beneficiaries dispute this view in different ways because of the mixed effects of the new technology on their entitlements under the PDS. The government’s capability to reconstruct its image through digital innovation is thus found to be constrained by citizens’ perceptions derived from their encounters with the new technology of governance.

Notes

1. In 2009, the Unique Identification Authority of India started the Unique Identification Project to collect the biometric data of residents and store them in a unique database. The term ‘Aadhaar’ refers to both the identification project at large and the 12-digit number assigned to each enrollee.

2. Taluks are sub-district administrative units in Kerala. A TSO is the bureau in charge of local administration of the PDS and other government schemes.

3. While Chatterjee suggests that ‘civil society and the poor coexist in India like oil and water’ (cited in Corbridge et al., 2005, p. 3), Corbridge et al. (2005) point to a ‘sea-change’ in contemporary Indian politics, based on the more participatory character of the most recent anti-poverty schemes.

4. Shortly after state independence in 1956, Kerala underwent a socioeconomic transition from below, in which peasants played a key role in subverting feudal relations of power. From the onset of the PDS in 1965, the various governments’ consideration for redistributive policies fostered the construction of a well-functioning PDS (until the shift to a targeted system in 1997).

5. In Kerala, as in most Indian states (with the exception of Tamil Nadu, which maintained a universal PDS), the move to a targeted system resulted in the dichotomy between the APL, left with a very limited subsidy, and the BPL households, for whom the subsidy remains substantial. In 2000, the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme was introduced, for the poorest of the poor to receive greater quantities of subsidised food-grains.

6. In September 2013, an order by the Supreme Court of India forbade states to make enrolment in social programmes conditional upon Aadhaar registration. However in March 2016, a new order reversed the previous one, providing legal backing to the use of Aadhaar in anti-poverty programmes.

7. Rates of Aadhaar enrolment in Kerala currently exceed 95%, and there are more than 700 among enrolment stations and enrolling machines in the state. Statistics can be found at http://uid.kerala.gov.in/aadhaarKerala.htm.

8. The monthly bill, summing up all transactions conducted through Aadhaar, is the basis on which allocation for the subsequent month is provided.

9. No timeframe has yet been announced for this proposal.

10. This does not imply that cash transfer programmes are ineffective or biased per se. For example, Aker et al. (2015) demonstrate that transfers enabled by mobile money can work as effective instruments of social protection. The problem voiced by recipients is not with the JAM project itself, but with the implications that a shift from the PDS would have on their access to food security entitlements.