Data purity project helps identify right beneficiaries of schemes: Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu government’s Data Purity project has saved thousands of crores of rupees as it weeded out ineligible beneficiaries from availing several loan waiver schemes and helped create a database of beneficiaries which serves as a decision-making support system for the administration.

The project was launched by the DMK dispensation in 2022 to help government departments identify right beneficiaries for various schemes and weed out ineligible ones, and to remove the names of the deceased from the list.

The project also helped create a beneficiary database that reduces the current system of silos and brings about inter-departmental sharing of data.

“Thousands of crores were saved towards Jewel loan waiver scheme and Self Help Group Loan waiver scheme by weeding out ineligible beneficiaries,” IT Minister Mano Thangaraj told the Assembly on Saturday.

The project is also being used to analyse the data of unorganised labourers and differently-abled to include them in the list of those needing ration cards.

Below Poverty Line (BPL) families without Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS) cards are analysed and steps have been taken by health department to issue new CMCHIS cards.

Thangaraj said the project has impacted in saving several crores of funds earmarked for welfare schemes and added that a State Family Database (SFDB) and Blockchain Backbone are being created to provide paperless, contactless and transparent services to citizens in a proactive manner.

“An e-Office application is operational at the Secretariat for paperless and speedy disposal of files to improve governance,” the minister said.

The Data Purity project was conceived after the government realised that ineligible people were availing government benefits, especially the Rs 4,000 assistance provided to ration card holders during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Besides, several people who applied for the gold loan waiver scheme were also found ineligible. “We are now processing the data available with various government departments to help identify the ineligible persons. We want to ensure that welfare schemes reach only the eligible beneficiaries,” a government official told DH.

The government will use the data generated from the project to identify the beneficiaries for its flagship scheme of providing Rs 1,000 per month to women heads of households as “rightful money".

Billed as one of the biggest cash transfer schemes, Magalir Urimai Thogai is modelled on the lines of Universal Basic Income which is being implemented in several countries.

People like fisherwomen, construction labourers, women working in small shops and maids who work in more than one house are among the 1 crore beneficiaries who will receive the assistance every month from September 2023.