-TheWire.in A government social audit conducted in April has found that 96.9% of people in Nagri block want to go back to the old public distribution system rather than continue with the Aadhaar-link benefit transfers. New Delhi: Even though a Jharkhand government social audit has confirmed widespread dissatisfaction with the Aadhaar-linked direct benefit transfer (DBT) pilot experiment in the public distribution system (PDS) in Nagri block, the project continues as before. The pilot...

  A national-level public hearing, which was organized at the Gandhi Peace Foundation (Delhi) on 15th March, 2018, has revealed that the intended beneficiaries of various entitlement-based welfare schemes and programmes of the Central government are witnessing difficulties and impediments in accessing the benefits and services. During the public hearing, which was organized by the Right to Food Campaign along with partnering grassroots-level organizations, poor and marginalized citizens from across 14 states...

-The Telegraph   Cash-for-ration going directly to beneficiary bank accounts 'a disaster'   Ranchi: Bhashan nahin, ration do (give no speeches, give us ration). DBT hatao, ration bachao (remove direct benefit transfer, save ration), Raghubar-Saryu hai-hai (down with chief minister Raghubar Roy and food minister Saryu Roy). Holding such banners and posters, around 1,000 residents from 13 panchayats of Nagri on Monday undertook a 15km padyatra (rally on foot) from Kathalmore to Raj Bhavan...

-The Indian Express Biometric authentication by PDS dealers defeats the unique identity scheme’s purpose. An aborted scheme in Madhya Pradesh that relied on once-in-a-year authentication can curb exclusion errors. Aadhaar is in the news today partly because of security concerns and partly because of reports that the poor are unable to receive PDS rations because of failures in Aadhaar authentication. Here, we will focus on the latter with an eye to look...

-Right to Food Campaign On 23 January 2018, 30-year-old Lukhi Murmu of Dhawadangal village of Hiranpur block in Pakur (Jharkhand) succumbed to prolonged undernutrition and exhaustion. She lived with her 14-year old sister Phulin in extreme poverty. Their meals usually comprised solely of rice and they even had to sleep hungry at times. The sisters’ deprivation worsened over the last four months when they were unable to access their ration from...