{"id":71217,"date":"2020-11-28T18:19:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T12:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=71217"},"modified":"2021-05-08T18:23:39","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T12:53:39","slug":"social-registry-for-better-targeting-of-welfare-schemes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/social-registry-for-better-targeting-of-welfare-schemes\/","title":{"rendered":"Social registry, for better targeting of welfare schemes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Context<\/strong>:\u00a0A social registry linking Aadhaar to residence info can target aid to the vulnerable during a pandemic.<\/p>\n

What is the need for Social registry?<\/strong><\/h5>\n
    \n
  • Recent estimates from the World Bank suggest that 88 to 115 million people could slide into poverty in 2020, which presents a\u00a0tough\u00a0challenge\u00a0for targeting welfare beneficiaries.<\/li>\n
  • It also emphasises the need for post-disaster revalidation of any existing social registration database.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Case\u00a0study:\u00a0challenge of targeting welfare beneficiaries.<\/strong>:\u00a0Examples\u00a0from India and US welfare programs<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The case of\u00a0US<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Few months back,\u00a0the\u00a0US\u00a0government\u00a0enacted\u00a0the\u00a0Coronavirus\u00a0Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that sends $1,200 to each individual below the income threshold of $75,000 to provide relief on account of the COVID-19 to poor and middle-class individuals and to stimulate the\u00a0economy.<\/li>\n
    • However, according to\u00a0The\u00a0Washington Post millions of households were yet to receive their stimulus payments.<\/li>\n
    • The reason is,\u00a0account information was available\u00a0only for\u00a0taxpayers who received\u00a0their\u00a0refunds\u00a0in their bank accounts\u00a0whereas, for\u00a0the\u00a0poor,\u00a0whose incomes were below the income threshold,\u00a0the authorities find difficulty in reaching them leading to\u00a0exclusion from safety nets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      India\u2019s Case<\/strong>:<\/h5>\n
        \n
      • Under\u00a0Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY),\u00a0an\u00a0ex-gratia payment of Rs 500\u00a0was\u00a0credited to women Jan Dhan account holders.<\/li>\n
      • Similarly, Farmers\u00a0registered for PM-KISAN also received Rs 2,000 in their accounts immediately.<\/li>\n
      • However, the money\u00a0did not reach\u00a0the most vulnerable households. For example, recipients of PM-KISAN were not amongst the poorest\u00a0households.\u00a0Data from round-3 of the NCAER Delhi Coronavirus Telephonic Survey (DCVTS-3), suggests that 21 per cent of farm households received transfers through PM-KISAN. However, 42 per cent of such households belonged to the\u00a0wealthiest.<\/li>\n
      • Similarly, for the PMJDY payment, BPL and non-BPL households record similar receipt transfers.\u00a0For example, nearly\u00a0half of poor women are unlikely to receive PMJDY transfers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        What can we learn from these observations?<\/strong><\/h5>\n
          \n
        • Authorities need a registry\u00a0containing data about individuals\u00a0and the individual must have a functioning\u00a0bank accounts\u00a0for money to be transferred\u00a0expeditiously.<\/li>\n
        • However, registries based on specific criteria (for example, identified BPL households) may not identify individuals most vulnerable to crises.<\/li>\n
        • The reason for this is,\u00a0factors that contribute towards alleviating poverty may differ from the ones that push people into\u00a0it that\u00a0pose\u00a0a\u00a0challenge\u00a0of targeting welfare beneficiaries.<\/li>\n
        • For example,\u00a0about\u00a040 per cent of the poor in 2012 were pushed into poverty by special circumstances and would not have been classified as being poor based on their 2005 conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Can, the\u00a0Universal\u00a0social\u00a0protection\u00a0schemes\u00a0can solve the problem of exclusion errors in welfare targeting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

            \n
          • It will lead to\u00a0serious fiscal impacts if expanded nationwide\u00a0because\u00a0most disasters are geographically clustered.<\/li>\n
          • For example,\u00a0Floods\u00a0or earthquakes often devastate a\u00a0few\u00a0districts\u00a0not all, similarly\u00a0pandemics may affect densely-populated cities more than\u00a0villages.<\/li>\n
          • Hence Universal\u00a0social protection schemes\u00a0can benefit the well off\u00a0more\u00a0than the needy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            What is the way forward?<\/strong><\/h5>\n
              \n
            • Need to\u00a0set up social registries that identify individuals, their place of residence, and their bank accounts, these linkages can be used to transfer funds to everyone living in the affected area quickly.<\/li>\n
            • Aadhaar linkages of individuals and bank accounts already exist. If residential information in the Aadhaar database can be efficiently structured, this would allow for geographic targeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Any social registry that can serve as a potential beneficiary platform for safety nets inherently runs the risk of violating individual\u00a0privacy.\u00a0To avoid privacy issues,\u00a0such social registries\u00a0can be allowed to store\u00a0only basic information such as location, instead of more sensitive identifiers.<\/p>\n

              \n

               <\/p>\n

              Poverty: news and updates<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n