Biometrics to help India keep rural job program honest
The Indian government launched a rural job program in 2006, aimed at bringing jobs to the poorest of the poor in India; the scheme assures 100 days of manual work annually to at least one member of every rural household; the program is now benefiting 35.2 million households across 619 districts; critics say that the well-intentioned program has been accompanied by fraud, bogus job cards, and ghost workers; the Indian government is now working to correct these through biometrics
Taking forward its plan to introduce the use of biometrics in the government’s flagship rural jobs scheme, India’s ministry of rural development on Tuesday met representatives of state governments and prospective bidders from the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) assures 100 days of manual work annually to at least one member of every rural household.
Launched in 2006, it has become one of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s most successful welfare programs, benefiting 35.2 million households across 619 districts.
Ruhi Tewari, writes that MGNREGS, which has been allocated a budget of Rs.40,100 crore this fiscal year, has also faced accusations of leaking money through bogus job cards and ghost workers. The rural development ministry, which oversees the scheme, decided to digitize its implementation using biometrics to plug these leaks, Mint reported in June.
According to its proposal, private service providers will be given state-wide service contracts for either six-and-a-half or thirteen years.
“We held a meeting with the prospective service providers today because we wanted to explain to them what the project was really about,” said Arvind Mayaram, additional secretary and financial advisor, rural development, who chaired the meeting. “It is important to demystify the project before we issue the RFQ (request for qualification) on the 26th (of October),” he added.
Bid winners will have to provide a digital system to enrol workers, using the same standards as a separate government project that promises to give every Indian resident a biometrics-based unique identification (UID).
Service providers will also procure the hardware for enrolment, provide trained workers to carry out the enrolment process, ensure attendance at MGNREGS work sites and keep a record of the work being done through biometric and GPS-enabled devices.
They will also have to manage the database of all these records for the state — the reason why the ministry wants a single statewide service provider.
In a 2008 report, the comptroller and auditor general said the ministry’s figures on employment “cannot be said to be very reliable or verifiable” because record maintenance was poor.
“The primary objective of implementing the project on a national level is to ensure common standardized processes across the nation through use of biometric and GPS-enabled ICT devices at work sites,” the ministry’s concept note says.
Tewari notes that the service provider has to bear capital and operational expenses during the contract’s tenure, while the ministry will pay it a fixed fee per gram panchayat (village council), or a transaction-based fee for enrollment, or a transaction-based fee for operations, or a combination of all three.
“Strong service standards would be set for the service provider and an independent third party consultant would monitor the operating standards of service providers,” the ministry said.