Karnataka has decided to rope in enumerators to enrol at least five lakh families into the flagship Kutumba database, as a one-time measure.
This will become the basis for the government to identify eligible beneficiaries for welfare schemes.
According to an order issued recently, the government has allocated Rs 1 crore to have at least five lakh families enrolled into the Kutumba family ID platform.
Operators or Janasevakas (those who provide door-step delivery of citizen services) will get Rs 5 for every member who is successfully enrolled.
The Kutumba project aims to be a comprehensive database to create an Integrated Social Protection System (ISPS) consisting of a Social Registry and an Entitlement Management System that the government wants to use for automatic disbursal of benefits to eligible citizens without them having to even apply.
Kutumba currently has data on 5.5 crore citizens belonging to 1.6 crore families.
“Some 100-150 lakh people are still out of Kutumba. Most of them are in the APL category who don’t interact much with the government,” Additional Chief Secretary (e-Governance) Rajeev Chawla told DH.
“For all family-oriented benefits such as health insurance, we consider one family as a unit. But, if we don’t know the family, then how can we give the benefit? So, it was decided to make efforts to get people enrolled,” Chawla explained. “We’re going slowly by making people see the advantage of the Kutumba project.”
At present, citizens can visit kutumba.karnataka.gov.in to register on their own.
“In addition to this self-service mode, we will give an incentive to Janasevakas under the Janasevaka project in Bengaluru to enrol people when they go to houses to deliver services,” Chawla said.
In addition to Janasevaka, the government will bear the enrolment cost at Bangalore One and Karnataka One centres.
One-time measure
“This is a one-time measure where the government has decided to bear the cost for the 2021-22 financial year only,” Chawla said.
If the demand for enrolment continues into the next fiscal, the government will decide on whether the citizen should pay to get enrolled.