States flag 'privacy' concerns over sharing Aadhaar details of PMJAY beneficiaries: Report

The government said that possible mapping of SECC beneficiaries with Aadhaar and NFSA will help in the easy identification of beneficiaries

States and Union Territories have flagged concerns over sharing Aadhaar details of National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries with the National Health Authority (NHA).

The Centre had earlier asked states and UTs to share the details to map the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) to target beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

The Centre’s scheme was launched on September 23, 2018, to provide health coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum per beneficiary family to around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families identified from SECC data of 2011 on the basis of select deprivation and occupational criteria across rural and urban areas respectively.

The AB-PMJAY is implemented in all states and UTs, barring West Bengal, NCT of Delhi and Odisha.

In a letter accessed by The Indian Express, NHA CEO R S Sharma wrote to Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey, it said, “due to deficiencies in the SECC database, beneficiary identification (under AB-PMJAY) has become extremely difficult. In this regard, NHA has been trying different ways and means to enrich the SECC database, which can then be used to target beneficiaries. Possible mapping of SECC beneficiaries with Aadhaar and NFSA will help in the easy identification of beneficiaries.”

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Following the letter, all the states and UTs were asked to share beneficiary details. However, according to the news report, an NHA official said that states have flagged concerns about the "security aspects of such a data transfer" and the possibility of the Centre "using it for political gains."

“Due to the lack of clarity on whether Aadhaar information can be freely shared between the ministries or not, there has been reluctance on the part of state governments owning the NFSA beneficiary information to share the Aadhaar details with NHA. This was raised by the NHA at the meeting,” another government official was quoted by The Indian Express.

Since the inception of the scheme, more than 2.2 crore eligible AB-PMJAY beneficiaries have been provided with health coverage for secondary, tertiary and daycare procedures for the treatment of diseases and medical conditions through a vast network of 24,000 Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCP), according to a government statement.

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