Subscribe
On May 16, when Chunni Bai Salvi, a resident of Rajasthan’s Aasan village, went to her nearest fair price shop (FPS) to collect her monthly ration, the dealer informed her about the mandatory electronic Know Your Customer process, also known as e-KYC. Without completing it, she was told, it would soon become difficult to access her monthly entitlement of 5 kilogrammes of wheat under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Salvi complied and attempted to complete her e-KYC verification through the electronic point of sale (e-POS) machine. However, the machine failed to capture her fingerprints. The 80-years-old tried multiple times but without success. At the time, she did not think much of it. But that turned out to be the last time she received her 5 kg wheat ration.
In June, when she returned to collect her ration, the dealer informed her that her ration card had been deleted until her e-KYC was completed.
FPS dealers across the country have been directed by the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies to conduct e-KYC verification for all 204 million household ration cards, covering 806 million people entitled to receive food grains under the NFSA through the government’s Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
Enacted to protect the most vulnerable sections of society against food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, the NFSA legally entitles 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population — two-thirds of the country’s total population — to subsidised food grains.
The e-KYC drive comes at a time when millions have already been excluded from the food security net due to the government’s reliance on outdated data caused by delays in the census.
Rajasthan was among the first states to implement e-KYC for beneficiary identification.
The process requires in-person verification of each family member listed on the ration card. Individuals must authenticate their identity using their fingerprints and Aadhaar card, which must be linked to their ration card.
While the process may seem straightforward on paper, for someone like Salvi — whose hands bear the wear of decades of manual labour — the process has become a threat to her food security.
Her hands have lost details; the ridges of her fingerprints have worn down over the years due to age and extensive construction work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), as well as her time as an agricultural labourer in farmers’ fields.
Her son, Nathuram Salvi, pointed to her pale hands and explained that since June, he has been pleading with the ration dealer to find a solution for his mother. But the only response he has received is that nothing can be done until her e-KYC is completed.
For now, Nathuram, who works as a daily wage labourer and receives 25 kg of wheat under the NFSA for his household of five (himself, his wife, and their three children), has been supporting his mother.
The push for biometric authentication existed even before the e-KYC process began; however, in cases where fingerprints could not be taken, the dealer could send a one time password (OTP) to the mobile number associated with the person’s Aadhaar card. This was how Salvi used to access her ration until May.
The government claims the aim of the e-KYC process is to ensure “rightful targeting” and eliminate fake ration cards. But for Salvi, the exercise has been highly exclusionary.
According to a government statement, as of November 20, the overhaul has led to the removal of 58 million crore ration cards from the PDS system. While the government asserts these were “fake” or “duplicate” cards, many individuals like Salvi have found themselves excluded from the food security net.
When the process was initially launched, the deadline was set for September, later extended to November, and now to December 31. Ideally, no deletions should have occurred until the deadline, but ration shop dealers have already begun removing names from the PDS list.
While this massive exercise is in full swing for millions of PDS households, particularly in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states, it has also begun affecting other welfare schemes, such as pension distribution and liquefied petroleum gas cylinder subsidies.
Senior citizens, whose fingerprints are often hardest to capture, have been among the worst affected, left in a state of helplessness.
Take the case of Mehna Ramlal from Dhoti village in Rajasthan’s Kaladeh Bhim taluka. Since June, she has been at the mercy of her neighbours for food. In her late 80s, Ramlal is unable to travel to the FPS to complete her e-KYC, resulting in the deletion of her ration card. Previously, someone from the village would collect her ration for her, but that is no longer possible due to the strict enforcement of e-KYC.
Ramlal is an ‘Antyodaya’ beneficiary, classified as among the poorest of the poor and entitled to 35 kg of ration per month instead of the standard 5 kg per person under the TPDS.
When Down to Earth (DTE) met her last week at a neighbour’s house, Ramlal appeared frail and unwell. Her own home, located nearby, was in a state of disrepair. To make matters worse, her pension also stopped after she could not get her yearly biometric verification done.
“While she was receiving her share of rations, she lived independently, cooking her own food. However, since her ration card was deleted a few months ago, she has been in a helpless state. Initially, one person took her in and cared for her, but he had to leave the village for work. Another household has since stepped in to support her,” said Shankar Singh of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, an organisation helping people navigate the challenges of the e-KYC process.
When Singh learned about Ramlal’s situation, he wrote to the Rajsamand district supply officer (DSO). After multiple exchanges, her ration supply was finally resumed on November 26.
DSO Om Paliwal told DTE that the ration dealer was instructed to deliver Ramlal’s rations directly to her home every month. “Her KYC was completed yesterday using an iris scan,” Paliwal explained.
The iris scan is an alternative biometric method, but most FPS lack the necessary devices for such scans. “Often, dealers are not aware of this option. We have trained all FPS dealers and are regularly monitoring the process to ensure beneficiaries do not face difficulties,” the DSO added.
However, many people whose problems may never come to light might not be as fortunate as Ramlal, unless a definitive solution is found in such cases.
In Bichhudra village in Bhim tehsil of Rajsamand district in Rajasthan, 85-year-old Neem Singh and his 75-year-old wife, Hanja Bai, worry about losing their ration access. The biometric device at their nearest FPS has been unable to recognise Neem’s fingerprints for e-KYC. For now, they are receiving 10 kg of wheat (5 kg each), but the dealer has warned them that e-KYC verification is required for all household members to continue receiving their entitlement.
“At this stage of life, they should not have to worry about food security. If the government insists on biometric verification, there must be alternative mechanisms for senior citizens and others whose biometrics cannot be recognised,” said Singh.
But the challenges of biometric verification are not limited to the elderly; even younger people working in jobs that require hard manual labour have encountered similar difficulties.
Premanand Kolkar, a 32-year-old construction worker from Karnataka’s Belgaum district, has never had his fingerprints recognised by the FPS device. His family of four — his wife and two children — was previously receiving 20 kg of rice (5 kg per person) under the TPDS until two months ago, facilitated by an OTP sent to his mobile phone.
However, since September, when e-KYC became mandatory, only his wife and children were able to complete the biometric process. As Premanand’s fingerprints were again rejected, the family’s ration allocation dropped to 15 kg, excluding his share.
For a family earning a modest Rs 12,000 per month, the 20 kg of rice had been a critical support for their food security.
Arjun Singh, a dealer at an FPS in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district, told DTE that a ‘bypass’ system exists for cases where biometrics cannot be authenticated.
“Beneficiaries can fill out a form signed by the dealer and obtain approval from the sub-divisional magistrate to access their ration. However, only two bypass requests are allowed per day, and not all shop dealers offer this option,” he said.
These practical issues have persisted for over a decade, ever since the introduction of Aadhaar, said Raj Shekhar, an independent researcher and activist associated with the Right to Food Campaign.
“However, we have not been able to address these issues. While the government’s aim is to curb corruption and increase transparency, these interventions have created opaque structures that make it harder for people to access their entitlements,” he said.
A detailed version of this story is published in the 16-31 January, 2025 print edition of Down To Earth