Direct Cash Transfer
Covering economy and policy in India can be hugely frustrating. One day you can hear how government wishes to launch a great new welfare scheme, which uses the latest technology and aims at targeting the most distressed. The very next day you could come across enough evidence of how that scheme is considered vile and unacceptable by the most needy themselves. What reconciles these two polar opposites is a mix of politics, misinformation and the legacy of decades of poor administration.
India’s first direct cash transfer scheme – Delhi Annshri Yojana (DAY) – to be set in motion from 15th December is a very good example of this. Let me introduce the scheme before introducing Rukhsana, the typical beneficiary DAY aims to target.
What is Delhi Annshri Yojana ?
On 12th December Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi Chief Minister, announced that her government will start DAY to provide Rs 600 per month to the bank accounts of 200,000 families which have been carefully selected in consultation with the various NGOs. The money will be given for food, although, as is the case with cash subsidy, one could use it for any purpose. Moreover, she clarified, this money is over and above all the existing food subsidies. Since the scheme has been functional, on paper, from the start of the financial year, the selected families will be given all the arrears too. Considering that the scheme so close to the Delhi assembly elections ( due next year) one could be forgiven to wonder if the move is more a political gimmick to win over marginal votes instead of resolving deep set problems. Anyway.
Sheila Dikshit made the announcement while inaugurating another big reform called “Saral Money” which allows people to open new bank accounts with their neighbourhood Kirana shop owners. The Kirana shop owner would now use a micro-ATM to verify the identity of a person through his bio-metrics and then provide him with a bank account instantaneously. A Micro-ATM is like a Point of Sale (PoS) device that
India’s first direct cash transfer scheme – Delhi Annshri Yojana (DAY) – to be set in motion from 15th December is a very good example of this. Let me introduce the scheme before introducing Rukhsana, the typical beneficiary DAY aims to target.
What is Delhi Annshri Yojana ?
On 12th December Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi Chief Minister, announced that her government will start DAY to provide Rs 600 per month to the bank accounts of 200,000 families which have been carefully selected in consultation with the various NGOs. The money will be given for food, although, as is the case with cash subsidy, one could use it for any purpose. Moreover, she clarified, this money is over and above all the existing food subsidies. Since the scheme has been functional, on paper, from the start of the financial year, the selected families will be given all the arrears too. Considering that the scheme so close to the Delhi assembly elections ( due next year) one could be forgiven to wonder if the move is more a political gimmick to win over marginal votes instead of resolving deep set problems. Anyway.
Sheila Dikshit made the announcement while inaugurating another big reform called “Saral Money” which allows people to open new bank accounts with their neighbourhood Kirana shop owners. The Kirana shop owner would now use a micro-ATM to verify the identity of a person through his bio-metrics and then provide him with a bank account instantaneously. A Micro-ATM is like a Point of Sale (PoS) device that