Context:
The increasing reliance on technology-driven surveillance tools by the government—such as biometric attendance systems, the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), and Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)—is intended to improve accountability and efficiency in welfare delivery. However, evidence from flagship schemes like MGNREGA, Poshan Abhiyan, and PDS suggests that these tools often fail to achieve genuine accountability, while instead fostering exclusion, corruption, privacy concerns, and worker demotivation.
Key Highlights:
Tech-based Accountability Measures
- Biometric attendance systems introduced to ensure punctuality and discipline in government offices.
- NMMS App (2022):
- Mandated for attendance in MGNREGA.
- Intended to curb inflated muster rolls.
- Poshan Tracker with FRT:
- Mandated by Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD).
- Used for Take Home Rations (THR) distribution.
- Aadhaar-Based Biometric Authentication (ABBA):
- Applied in Public Distribution System (PDS).
Implementation Failures
- NMMS attendance often bypassed through:
- Irrelevant, manipulated, or staged photographs.
- FRT for THR faces:
- Poor internet connectivity.
- Device and software failures.
- Scope for impersonation and manipulation.
- ABBA in PDS has:
- Excluded elderly, disabled, migrant, and manual labourers.
- Created new rent-seeking opportunities.
Unintended Consequences
- Exclusion Errors:
- Genuine beneficiaries denied welfare due to tech failure.
- Worker Demotivation:
- Honest frontline workers penalised for technical glitches beyond their control.
- Privacy Invasions:
- Collection of sensitive biometric and facial data without adequate safeguards.
- Inefficiency & Corruption:
- Technology shifts corruption from “human discretion” to system manipulation.
Structural Governance Concerns
- Overemphasis on tech-fixes diverts attention from:
- Work culture
- Institutional incentives
- Social norms and ethical responsibility
- Continued investment despite failures indicates:
- Vested interests
- Creation of assured markets for tech companies
- Reflects Agnotology:
- Deliberate ignorance of evidence showing harm caused by surveillance tools.
Relevant Prelims Points:
- Issue & Causes:
- Blind faith in technology as a substitute for governance reform.
- Schemes & Tools:
- NMMS (MGNREGA), Poshan Tracker (THR), ABBA (PDS).
- Benefits (Claimed):
- Transparency, efficiency, reduced leakages.
- Challenges:
- Digital divide, exclusion, privacy risks, manipulation.
- Impact:
- Weak accountability, welfare denial, erosion of trust in governance.
Relevant Mains Points:
- Key Concepts:
- Accountability vs Surveillance
- Agnotology
- Responsibility in public service
- Static & Conceptual Linkages:
- Good Governance principles: transparency, responsiveness, inclusiveness.
- Right to Privacy (Article 21).
- Governance & Social Justice Dimensions:
- Technology-induced exclusion of vulnerable populations.
- Ethical concerns in biometric surveillance.
- Science & Technology Angle:
- Limits of algorithmic governance in socio-economic programs.
- Way Forward:
- Shift from surveillance-based control to trust-based accountability.
- Independent audits of welfare technologies.
- Provide offline alternatives and grievance redressal.
- Strengthen work culture, local supervision, and community monitoring.
- Adopt technology as an aid, not a substitute, for governance.
UPSC Relevance (GS-wise):
- GS 2 (Governance): Accountability, welfare delivery, digital governance.
- GS 2 (Social Justice): Inclusion, rights of vulnerable sections.
- GS 3 (Science & Technology): Ethical use of technology, digital divide.
- Prelims: NMMS, Poshan Tracker, ABBA, Agnotology.