A Key Bengal BJP Govt Scheme Has a 10-Page Application Form. Here's Why it is Leading to Fears of Disenfranchisement |
Kolkata: Across India, cash-transfer schemes for women have become one of the most powerful instruments of electoral politics and social welfare. Governments present them as direct, efficient and corruption-free support for households where a few thousand rupees can determine whether food, medicine or school expenses are paid on time.
No serious observer can deny that such schemes need some verification. The state has a legitimate interest in checking identity, age, income, duplication and bank details before transferring public money to those who deserve it. But there is a point at which verification stops being welfare administration and becomes population surveillance. While replacing the previous Trinamool Congress government’s ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme, which provided a more modest Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,700, West Bengal’s new BJP government has doubled the financial incentive with its Annapurna Yojana. But in doing so, it appears to cross the line.
The concern surrounding Bengal’s Annapurna Yojana is not the government’s mandate to verify beneficiaries before disbursing public funds. Any government can and should do this. The issue lies in the scheme’s data overreach. Why should a welfare form for a women’s cash-transfer scheme need to know so much more than the identity, income, residence and bank details of the beneficiary?
The official state portal hosts the Annapurna Yojana form and states that the content, data, process and operation are owned and maintained by the government of West Bengal. The form is titled ‘Family Level Data Collection Form for Annapurna Yojana’. It says that filling up all the fields is mandatory.
It predictably asks for ordinary welfare indicators such as name, date of birth, gender, address, Aadhaar, ration-card details, income indicators and bank accounts. It then goes much further, and seeks the Aadhaar details of all family members, bank accounts of the head of family and all adult members, EPIC numbers complete with assembly constituency and electoral-roll part numbers, alongside permanent account numbers (PAN) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) registrations, landholding sizes, detailed vehicular ownership, health insurance premiums, and the specific employment categories of the entire household. It probes into the lives of children, mandating vaccination statuses and the exact type of school they attend, with separate, highly specific checkboxes for recognised and unrecognised madrasas.
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