The ration shops have benefited a vast majority of India's population. But anyone who has visited a ration shop ever knows that complaints about lack of stock or poor quality are rife. Corruption and black marketing are to be partly blamed for these. For generations, the Public Distribution System (PDS) has been mired in shady trade practices.
The government move to link ration cards with Aadhaar and biometric verification before distributing rations were expected to cure the ills plaguing the system. These were thought to be a giant leap in ensuring government schemes directly reached its actual beneficiaries. However, my experiences proved that it was not so.
As an optimistic youth I always thought that with projects like Digital India our nation would get rid of corruption. A recent visit to a ration shop along with my mother shattered my hopes.
As per the new system, our shopkeeper verified the thumb impression and asked us about our needs. Even after entering our requirements he seemed to be manipulating with the system. This created doubts in me, but he neither let me check his monitor nor gave us any receipt. On further enquiry, I was told that the rules varied from ration shop to ration shop. When the procedures have turned electronic the shopkeepers seems to have mastered it. If such unfair practices could be carried out in an urban area, then the situation could be worse in rural areas where computer literacy could be low.
Digital India is a great leap for India but its true objectives can be achieved only when the digital divide is minimised. Our experience proved just like the government mechanisms, corruption too which has faithfully remained a part of the system is too turning digital these days!