Aadhaar card or just the number is now mandatory to link with PAN number.
Aadhaar number is now optionally linked with Voter-ID card/Number.
Aadhaar is mandatory to link with UAN(Universal Account Number) of the EPFO.
Aadhaar is optionally seeded in Bank and Mobile operators database.
Most non-governmental agencies are mandated to hold tokenized aadhaar databases and people need not even share their Aadhaar number and just a Temporarily generated Virtual-ID is enough in many places.
After all of this progress on the Aadhaar for Governance or e-Governance front, Government is trying to collate aadhaar numbers of families as a unit to allot them a family-ID.
Families in India are a loose concept as prostitutes and destitute can only dream to have one. Just like how the Socio Economic Caste Census of 2015 flopped in a grand manner, so will this family-ID scheme too as its not well thought through.
Poverty in India has reduced over the last decade but due to Covid-19 disruptions this statistic has seen an increase. Many workers have returned to their native places as have software engineers who have had to work from home.
The government of the day has launched a Digital India scheme which has the JAM trinity as its fulcrum. PM Jan Dhan Yojana had become the largest financial inclusion program in the world in a very short time. It now boasts of 44 crore bank accounts holding more than ₹1.5 trillion in aggregate balances.
Mobile connectivity received a boost after the launch of Reliance Jio.
The government had made Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) mandatory for many of the Central and CSS(Centrally sponsored) Schemes. It is heartening to note that cumulative transfers through the DBT to people including Cash and In-Kind transfers have aggregated to more than ₹20 trillion.
Government has been doing an assorted set of Direct Benefit Transfers such as PMGKY during the pandemic, PM Kisan to the farmers, PMAY to the housing ministry beneficiaries, Fertilizer DBT to the farmers in Kind, LPG-Pahal to gas consumers etc.
The combined effect of all these steps is that people have had some semblance of Social Security. The flip side of these piece meal efforts at providing benefits is that many people who have slipped out of the net or have been wantonly excluded number in millions.
The government is trying to gather data of informal workers who do not have epfo or esic membership and giving them an e-Shram card. It is astounding to note that already 20 crore e-shram cards have been issued.
It is also likely that all farmers who are beneficiaries of the PM-Kisan and fertilizer DBT are also likely to be excluded from the e-shram scheme.
