Chandigarh: Parivar Pehchan, public policy with Indian family ethos says Manohar Lal Khattar

Chandigarh : Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP), is one of its kind of public policy but rooted in the Indian ethos of family. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is candid and explains how the political dispensation and the administration deployed technology to tweak and clear bottlenecks to translate into a unique scheme for the citizens of Haryana. Also, it is the first of its kind in India.

There may be four or ten members in a family, In society, everyone in a family is concerned about it. That makes the family the central and unique unit to factor in. The Aadhar card system was initiated as a measure of identification for ‘individual citizens.” But in real-time societal functioning, it is the family that plays a central role. The Haryana government felt that there should be a mechanism to address the issues worrying people by considering families as a unit and finding solutions. so that the governance policy perspectives and execution are more aligned, rooted, and practical with real-life situations.

For this, “we went ahead to develop the Haryana Residents Database (HRD), and we made Aadhar mandatory for it.” But, there was a hue and cry that Aadhar could not be made mandatory, citing the right to privacy. The Apex Court had also ruled in favour of the right to privacy protection. Then, we decided not to ask for Aadhar and to bring in another system, Khattar said.

Ration cards and other components have been integrated into it. Then we conducted a field survey.

The local unit for verification The local committee will have 3000 families, or on average, 15,000 families. The 20,000 local committees that we have formed have five members: two are from the government, one is a data entry operator, one is a team leader, one is a college or university student, and one is a social worker. We have sent them to every household and augmented the self-declared data from the citizens. Then we synergized the data.

The next layer was the income metric of the people. Some with an income of Rs 5 lakh were claiming their income of Rs 1 lakh. Showing less income would allow them to avail themselves of government benefits. It is coming to about two crores in number. We matched it with birth and death registrations. Wherever death certificates were issued, we deleted their names. We made it an authentic metric. Then came the relaxations in Aadhar verification. We have also linked the Aadhar card with the database collected. The verification with Aadhar helped us get their name, address, father’s name, and other details authenticated.

In the case of income, we cross-checked with the data from IT returns. It was found that 82,000 government servants and private job holders showed less than Rs 1.80 lakh as their income during the field survey.

This discrepancy made people update their data on income voluntarily.

Actual payment of electricity bills and data on children studying in private and government schools were matched with our data.

All this has helped the administration develop “golden data” (true data).

Then, the cross-verification has been done with the scheme’s data, and the definition of BPL has been changed, with those with an annual income of Rs 1.80 lakh alone considered BPL families. Further, they will be identified automatically. It enabled the issuing of about 12 lakh new ration cards to eligible people or other priority classes.

When it comes to caste certificates, the SC, and BC were asked to give their caste during the field survey as they needed certificates. But, the general category was not asked for the same. Now, people can get their caste certificates with the click of a button.

When asked, the chief minister told The Hans India, the scheme of Ayushman Bharat is implemented in the state. Chirayu Haryana scheme added more to come under the health coverage scheme. Now people with incomes up to Rs 3 lakh are also asking to extend it to them. “My government is considering paying Rs 1,500 out of the health insurance premium of Rs 3,000 to bring more people under health insurance coverage in the state.”