Good Governance Application 2 : Direct Benefit Transfer
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Plugged In / Leak Off/ Sealed Only 15 paise reaches the needy’: SC quotes one of the major politician remarks in its Aadhaar verdict in 2016. This quote came In 1985, on a visit to drought-affected Kalahandi district in Odisha as “ every rupee spent by the government, only 15 paise reached the intended beneficiary”. That was the scenario in those days. Has it changed now, my answer will be, yes, to a larger extent. Governments across the world run large cash/kind transfer programmes as an incentive to access essential commodities to its beneficiaries as a part of the government manifesto. Even though the intention is good, due to the process, pilferage was high. Let’s take an example of scholarship, the flow of release is depicted below. The issue with this flow is too many intermediaries, delay, lack of a mechanism to know whether the intended beneficiary received it or not. Due to the nonexistence of bank account to beneficiary cash disbursal happens at the l...