[Life Line to Business (LL2B), an ICT organization based in Chennai was awarded the 2006 Manthan award under the category ‘e-Inclusion and Livelihood Creation’ for creating India’s best e-Content for biometric tracking of payments under the Work for Food Programme and National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGP) Scheme. Changing the mindset of government officials towards adopting the biometric tracking technology and providing sufficient funds to implement it country-wide were the biggest roadblocks. This article describes the work done by the author and his team in the states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh in the field of biometrics for unique identification and tracking of benefits extended to poor citizens[i]. The work done is an initial drive to empower the voiceless poor and marginalized citizens to obtain their rightful share of benefits and reduce corruption that is omnipresent right from the village to the national level.]

Background

Today, there are a number of e-governance initiatives like computerization of driving license, PAN card, voter ID card, ration card for PDS distribution, ID card for NREGP, smart card for National Rural Health Mission and passport being undertaken in India. There is no single multipurpose ID card encompassing all cards. This can lead to corruption in delivery of services, as well as fraudulence on the part of citizens/middlemen, such as duplication of documents and forgery of names and addresses. According to estimates, around 10-20% of citizens entitled to various benefits are denied the same as they do not have the necessary ID cards and another 10-20% existing cards are duplicate/bogus cards - by the simple expedient of providing different names, father’s names, addresses, etc. Thus on the one hand, genuine beneficiaries are denied the benefits that they are entitled to and on the other hand non-genuine beneficiaries are enjoying benefits that they are not entitled to.

The single motivating factor behind the conceptualization of the biometric tracking initiative was the need to empower the poor and marginalized rural and urban citizens by ensuring that they receive benefits meant for them under various welfare schemes of the Government, and by plugging the leakages in the system to improve targeting of genuine beneficiaries.

Introduction

A biometric smart card (BSC) can act as a single multipurpose card for uniquely identifying every individual. The BSC would contain the citizen’s ID number, name, parent’s names, date and time of birth, place of birth, blood group, identification marks, height, weight, address, digital photo and complete set of fingerprints. Whenever the card is used, a computer can compare the fingerprints registered with those of the user, thus making the identification fool proof. The card can be updated on a yearly basis to track the changed characteristics (such as height, weight, finger print, photo, physical / mental disabilities) of the card holder, if any. In addition to fingerprints, data related to the iris, facial characteristics, hand geometry and DNA can also be stored in the card for higher order checks.

The BSC can also be used to track the various transactions/benefits received by citizens and as a debit card linked to a bank account. The computers at the village panchayats can be integrated with the server at the block in a hub-and-spoke model[ii]; similarly the servers at the blocks can be integrated with the district server; the district servers can be integrated with the state server; and the state servers integrated with the national server. Data would thus be available at all servers and duplicates can be eliminated by running the biometric data in conjunction with a suitable software on a regular basis in all servers starting from the panchayat to the national server. Government agencies responsible for administering various welfare schemes, service providers such as NGOs, banks, citizens and their elected representatives can also be integrated into the same platform for effective multi-way communications.

What is required at each village for the implementation of the biometric smart card is a stand-alone finger print scanner that typically costs about Rs 20,000, a laptop computer, a webcam or digital camera, smart cards each costing about Rs 100 to 200 depending upon the amount of information they need to contain, and local trained people for operating the system. The biometric devices and laptops can run on rechargeable solar batteries. This makes it a feasible option for successful implementation even in remote areas without regular electricity, thus allowing the entire rural population in the country to be targeted. For a nominal service fee, it can also be made sustainable in the long run.

BSCs can be used to create a healthy democracy — they could be used as voter ID cards thereby eliminating unfair voting practices. At the time of voting, a voter can be authenticated by using a finger print verifier to compare any of his/her fingers with the fingerprint data stored in the chip. The record of voting can be stored in the chip and the voting machine, and subsequently downloaded to a computer and transferred to a central server.

The card could also be used to create healthy citizenry - an essential component of a democracy – by tracking citizens’ health, hygiene, housing, education and skill training in various life skills; generating suitable employment for citizens based on their education/skills and ensuring appropriate earnings for them; and tracking expenses and payment of insurance, taxes, disability and old age pension, etc. of every citizen. The amount of welfare funding that is required can be estimated and provided for by using a bottom-up approach wherein citizens themselves exercise their opinion on various schemes. Optimal utilization of funds can also be done by online tracking of the progress of various welfare schemes and measuring benefits accrued to citizens in terms of reduction in poverty and improvement in living standards. Moreover, biometric tracking could help to keep track of movement of people, particularly in sensitive areas, thereby avoiding infiltration, minimizing terrorism, and damage/loss to property and life.

Having a BSC can help a citizen to carry out virtual transactions, any time from any where (for example, a village kiosk) and would help in reducing the personal contact with government officials, thereby reducing corruption and increasing the transparency of the system. Moreover all the transactions can be seen live on the Internet and citizens can track for themselves the progress of various complaints, schemes and payments. To enable this, a suitable e-Administration, e-platform for e-governance can be implemented using open source tools that would integrate the entire vertical and horizontal hierarchy of government / service authorities from the national to the village level and citizens for G2C/G2G/B2B/B2C transactions.

Implementation of Proof of Concept

The actual performance of the idea has been successfully tested on small village populations in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh by the team of Life Line to Business under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), a centrally sponsored scheme focused on generating employment opportunities in rural districts, creation of assets for sustainable living, and short term and long term poverty alleviation. A demonstration of biometric tracking was given to officials of the Rural Development Department in Bihar, after which, the team was invited to implement a proof of concept for NREGP beneficiaries in rural Bihar .

The villages identified for the proof of concept were among one of the most under developed in the state - Kurkuri and Dhuparchak Musahari villages in Phulwarisharif Block of Patna district. The proof of concept was implemented by targeting 170 men and women who were registered beneficiaries under NREGP and had NREGP cards with photographs. Registration and verification was done using different optical biometric devices. A Fingkey Hamster (a computer linked optical finger-size biometric device) was used for registering prints of all the ten fingers, personal data such as the individual’s name, name of his/her father/mother/husband, date of birth, address, etc., and a photograph of the beneficiary. This entire database to be stored in a java 32kb contactless smart chip[iii] and issued as a Citizen I-Card. The existing NREGP cards with photograph and details were scanned and linked to the details pertaining to the Citizen I-Card in the database.

Attendance tracking was done by placing any of the ten fingers on the biometric device and entering the NREGP ID number, after which a one to one match of the finger print would take place and the photograph of the card holder would pop up on the computer monitor. Simultaneously, the cardholder’s attendance was marked as ‘in’ or ‘out’ depending on whether it was the first or second entry of the day, and a record was created in the database to track the person’s attendance. For field work, it was desired that a mobile optical biometric device with its own battery power backup would be more suitable for daily attendance tracking. A stand alone hand held biometric device that can run with rechargeable batteries and store 1,500 finger prints was used for the registration and verification. The device also had the capability to register the NREGP ID and all the ten fingers (each 3 times for getting the best minutiae count).

Anup Mukherjee, Principal Secretary and Commissioner in the Department of Rural Development, Government of Bihar, has stated in his “Report on pilot tracking of NREGP beneficiaries using biometrics” dated 8th June 2006 that:

"A pilot project for tracking of NREGP beneficiaries in two locations in the Phulwarisherif block of Patna District was conducted by Life Line to Business (LL2B) with the support of NIC and BEST, a Joint venture between BELTRON and ILFS. The biometric registration and verification was 100% successful.

Biometric registration of citizens for unique identification and verification can be used for NREGP work in association with suitable web-based software for creating a central database for access at the Panchayat, Block, District and State level.

Pursuant to the success of this proof of concept, the government of Bihar is planning to implement a comprehensive biometric NREGP solution including registration, smart card, e-Muster roll and bank-linked payment to streamline the implementation of this vital poverty alleviation programme.”

It is also possible to integrate finger print registration with a smart card which can store the finger prints and personal data for use any time anywhere. If the smart card is linked to the post office or bank account, payments can automatically be credited into the post office or bank account. The multipurpose smart card can be used as a biometric debit card for making purchases or for drawing money from ATMs. Poor citizens can by themselves track their attendance, work done and payment received. No one would be able to cheat them as the smart card has a permanent record of all transactions. Bihar would have the unique distinction of becoming the first state in India to introduce biometric tracking for NREGP to root out corruption, empower the poor and alleviate stark poverty.

The concept was similarly tested in villages of the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) wherein middlemen had embezzled the major part of the flood relief released by an NGO using a fraudulent manual muster roll. Agricultural workers were entirely left to the mercy of nature and were being exploited by greedy, corrupt middlemen. The village initiative was possible only after several rounds of counseling and discussions. The implementation was initially seen as yet another bogus scheme to siphon funds, and required some convincing to make villagers see its benefits.

The team had to use a 12 volt car battery and run the device since there was no power available in the entire block. The method adopted was tamper-proof. Even if biometric verification is not possible in a rare case, the Citizen ID retrieved from the smart card with the photo can serve as adequate proof. Biometric tracking using the iris (retina of the eye) has been done in Andhra Pradesh for public distribution system. But since the iris scanner is a costlier device the team came up with a suggestion to use a low-cost finger print scanner that would serve the needs of the common man. Stand-alone devices can be used in the field to track the daily worker’s attendance and the data can then be downloaded to the local computer connected to a telephone line to send it to the block server. The smart card would help to store the entire attendance information. To eliminate any doubt in the mind of the worker, an instant printout of the attendance slip can be given using a palm printer. The pay slip can also be generated automatically and the amount credited into the account for use through the Multipurpose Biometric Smart Card Cum Debit Card.

When a villager arrives for work, he can sign in on the biometric device and sign out when he finishes. Thus, an official record of the man-days he has put in can be maintained. This cannot be tampered with and he can be paid correctly for the number of days and hours he / she  has worked. This April 2006 experiment carried out by the author and his team in three villages of Andhra Pradesh - Gurrampeta, Mohammedabad and Jakulla Kootha Palli under the Work for Food, a forerunner of National Rural Development Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was adjudged as the best entry under the category ‘e-Inclusion and Livelihood Creation’ for the prestigious Manthan Award in 2006.

Conclusion

The multipurpose biometric smart card, in conjunction with suitable e-tools for validating transactions and introducing total transparency, is certainly an achievable solution that can help to empower every poor and marginalized citizen, irrespective of his / her status in society. The solution can enable citizens to demand and get whatever is rightfully due to them, and prevent middlemen, in collusion with corrupt officials, from siphoning the funds meant for the poor. It can serve as a tool for creating healthy citizenry, ensure poverty alleviation and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The central government and various state government departments, NGOs and micro credit organizations in India have shown interest in adopting this technology to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. India can soon become a role model for the developing world by adopting the Biometric Smart Card – a multipurpose I-Card for the entire lifetime of every citizen.