Kerala creates unified registry with data of 3.45 cr citizens, next up Social Protection ID

The state government has given nod for a project to develop a Social Protection ID for the citizens who are beneficiaries of welfare schemes. This will be a follow-up to the Unified Registry project which was launched to improve the effectiveness & efficiency of social welfare schemes of Kerala through establishment of a centralized common platform for beneficiary identification and selection, enhancement of transparency and effectiveness of beneficiary selection process, consolidation and de-duplication of data and providing a safety net from disasters.

The Unified Registry has been established and data pertaining to 3.45 crore citizens of Kerala available in various government databases like the Public Distribution System (PDS), Social Security pensions, and Welfare Board pensions have been onboarded to the same. The project is also connected to the ‘Disbrursement Lnked Indicator (DLI 2)- Disaster-related adaptive safety net system of Kerala. The target of DLI 2 is that 100,000 beneficiary households shall receive social protection benefits (adaptive safety net/ insurance) through direct benefit transfers linked to the State’s Unified Database.

The Kerala State IT mission has proposed to develop an online platform for Adaptive Social Protection mechanism by integrating departmental data to generate comprehensive citizen profiles. Through this platform, the citizens will receive a Social Protection ID, simplifying benefit discovery and application, according to an order issued by the Department of Planning and Economic Affairs.

In March, the RKI ( Rebuild Kerala Initiative) Implementation committee gave in-principle approval for Unified Registry Phase II, at an estimated cost of ₹23.75 crore. The amount shall be utilized from the unspent amount from the previous allocations issued in respect of the Unified Registry.

This initiative will enable the government to monitor benefit allocation and refine scheme planning.