The aim of this purchase is to carry out biometric Aadhaar authentication for payments to 4.2 million beneficiaries of social welfare, at an estimated total cost of roughly USD 3.2 million. The Kerala State IT Mission proposed the purchase of 4,731 tablets, for an estimated USD 1.2 million, and 10,331 fingerprint and 5,600 iris scanners, for an estimated price of USD 1.5 million. To this, 4G connections for the tablets are also included in the total project budget.
The check is being done primarily to identify beneficiaries whose status has changed because they are missing, deceased, or have remarried. Between 2016 and 2018, local bodies in Kerala suspended 224,000 social welfare pensions as ineligible. Moreover, in September 2018, the government declared more than 64,000 people to be ineligible for welfare pensions, and suspended the distribution of benefits to them.
More than USD 66.4 million is distributed by the government in social welfare each month, to 4.2 million beneficiaries in the state. India’s government has been clarifying the rules for use of Aadhaar biometrics after they were curtailed by a Supreme Court ruling earlier in 2018.
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