No end to inconvenience

In one of the clustered, matchbox houses of Risala Abdullah in Hyderabad resides M Jayamma, a daily wage labourer. Her husband Baburao is an onion vendor.

Together they earn Rs 7,000 per month. Their 15-year-old son, Balraj, dropped out of school in August to contribute to the family income by taking up petty electrical jobs. Before the introduction of the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication (ABBA) machine, they received their full grain entitlement of 18 kg.

In March, they were informed that an Aadhaar card with the same ‘unique’ number as Baburao’s was in use in Mehoobnagar district. Consequently, both Baburao and Balraj were struck off the right-holders’ list. Despite various trips to the Circle Office and ‘Mee Seva’ centres, their predicament has not been solved. To add to their woes, Jayamma’s fingerprint is not being recognised by the biometric machine since July.

Jayamma’s household is among the 80 we surveyed in Hyderabad. We found that 38% of households reported fingerprint authentication issues, 31% made more than one trip to the shop and 27% reported machine connectivity issues resulting in either failed or delayed transactions. Certain households reported exclusion of members due to the absence of Aadhaar cards or Aadhaar seeding errors.

Of the 50 that successfully transacted in October, we found that all households had received their full entitlement at the correct price. Strikingly, 71 of the 80 households reported receiving their full entitlements at the correct price prior to introduction of ABBA. Contrary to being a “game changer” for welfare delivery, persistent and pervasive issues have arisen with ABBA. It has imposed various challenges. Right-holders like Jayamma and Baburao who lack the resources to access the grievance redressal mechanism have resigned to their sour fate of denied entitlements.

(Somanchi is a graduate student of Development Studies at TISS, Mumbai; Bej is a law student at NALSAR, Hyderabad)