For lakhs of individuals in India, entry to meals subsidies has develop into more and more insecure—primarily attributable to discrepancies within the necessary digital Know Your Buyer (e-KYC) verification of ration playing cards. A number of studies have emerged of people being denied entry to entitlements beneath the Public Distribution System (PDS), or of state governments asserting the mass deletion of ration playing cards.  

In Could 2025, as a part of a examine carried out by Libtech—a gaggle of engineers, social scientists, and coverage researchers leveraging expertise to enhance public service supply—we spoke to migrant employees from Latehar, Jharkhand, who had been beneath pressure over the destiny of their ration entitlements.  

Amongst these employees was Pankaj Singh,* a 25-year-old building employee in Gujarat, who couldn’t discover a truthful value store close to his office to finish the e-KYC course of. In Mumbai, 40-year-old Santanu Singh,* a painter, by some means managed to succeed in the truthful value store vendor near his workplace for the e-KYC, solely to be turned away and requested to get it finished on the one in his village in Jharkhand, which is listed because the everlasting deal with on his ration card. In the meantime, though Prachi Kumari,* a building employee in her 30s working in Tripura, was in a position to full her e-KYC at her nearest truthful value store, it by no means mirrored towards her identify within the state’s PDS portal, which has particulars of ration card holders with their e-KYC standing.  

These tales replicate what’s turning into the norm for socio-economically susceptible individuals throughout the nation: bearing the brunt of an abrupt and opaque change within the methods by way of which they train their proper to meals. 

On March 25, 2025, the union Ministry of Shopper Affairs, Meals and Public Distribution (MoCAFP) issued a discover to all states and union territories to finish the e-KYC of all ration card holders eligible for PDS beneath the Nationwide Meals Safety Act (NFSA) by the top of April 2025. The letter famous that whereas the e-KYC course of for all these coated beneath the act has been ongoing, failure to realize 100% completion by the designated date might outcome within the withholding of subsidies and curtailment of meals grain allocation.  

E-KYC verification includes confirming the identification of an individual by way of biometric authentication, adopted by matching the demographic knowledge on their Aadhaar card with their ration card. The method requires all members listed on a ration card to hyperlink it to their particular person Aadhaar numbers, and to endure biometric or IRIS authentication by way of digital point-of-sale (e-POS) machines at a good value store. Nonetheless, activists and observers have reported that marginalised communities have encountered main disruptions on this course of.  

Evolution of the e-KYC course of 

The primary vital communication from the MoCAFP on e-KYC was on August 20, 2019. It outlined the objective of the verification and prompt procedures for attaining full protection. In March 2023, one other advisory clarified that Aadhaar numbers had been seeded (or linked) for 95 % of ration card holders, whereas highlighting that validation remained a priority.  

In line with the ministry, it was primarily one member from every ration card-holding household who would endure biometric authentication to gather ration from the truthful value store. As such, since different members of the family had not authenticated their identification, there was an opportunity of duplicate or ineligible people being included within the system. In consequence, the ministry said that the federal government should guarantee 100% authentication to verify that seeded Aadhaar numbers belonged to these listed on the ration card, and that this was solely potential by way of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication. One other letter was issued in June 2024, directing 100% compliance with the e-KYC technique of all ration card holders throughout the nation. 

In line with a response within the Parliament on March 25, 2025, 100% of ration playing cards had been digitised, 99.3 % had been seeded, and 99.6 % of truthful value retailers had an e-POS put in. E-KYC had been accomplished for 75.69 % of ration card holders throughout the nation, with Karnataka main at 98.2 % completion. Delhi had coated the bottom share of its eligible inhabitants, at simply 6.6 %.  

Odisha was among the many first states to start out the e-KYC drive as early as August 2024, supposedly to weed out greater than 50 lakh faux ration playing cards and streamline the system. Since then, the deadline has been pushed again a number of instances, whereas the federal government has ‘quickly suspended’ rice distribution for over 20 lakh eligible people, citing non-compliance with e-KYC. Conflicting studies have emerged over the issuance of recent ration playing cards regardless of pending e-KYC verification for current holders.  

Aadhaar-linked authentication failures trigger exclusion 

Biometric authentication by way of Aadhaar usually fails for individuals akin to building employees, home employees, and farmers, whose fingerprints are worn out from years of strenuous guide labour. Aged individuals and youngsters, whose biometric data is both unstable or underdeveloped, face comparable obstacles, particularly since eligibility for meals entry depends upon up-to-date knowledge. 

When mixed with patchy web and bug-riddled tech, knowledge verification turns into a bottleneck. Info will get trapped in limbo between e-POS machines, ration databases, and the Aadhaar system—locking out India’s most susceptible residents from the meals system meant to guard them. 

Throughout subject work in Latehar, we additionally spoke to Gangadhar,* a 45-year-old farmer, who found that his Aadhaar quantity was linked to his spouse’s ration card with out his information. In consequence, when he went for his e-KYC verification, the truthful value store vendor turned him away, stating that his spouse’s identify was showing twice on the ration card. A number of such circumstances of errors within the seeding of Aadhaar with ration playing cards have been reported throughout the nation. In lots of cases, there have been threats of outright deletion of such ration playing cards with none additional investigation or grievance redressal, leaving individuals like Gangadhar with none reduction. 

Since its entry into PDS over a decade in the past, irregularities in Aadhaar-linking have had devastating penalties. In 2017, the Proper to Meals Marketing campaign (RTFC) documented greater than 20 hunger deaths the place Aadhaar-related points had blocked PDS entry. The State of Aadhaar Report (2020) additionally discovered that greater than 30 % of people that confronted authentication failures at PDS shops didn’t obtain their rations in any respect.  

Authentication failures attributable to poor community in distant rural areas 

Unreliable community connectivity has lengthy plagued the implementation of e-KYC in public provisioning methods, significantly in rural and distant areas. In Pratapgarh’s tribal areas, as an example, ASHA employees reported that poor web entry hindered the completion of e-KYC for individuals entitled to Ayushman Bharat. In Odisha, the place community connectivity points disrupt even common ration distribution, the federal government needed to prolong the e-KYC deadline as ration card holders couldn’t replace their particulars in 341 ration retailers. 

Systemic outages in Aadhaar authentication providers have been documented for a number of years. In 2023, the Distinctive Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) acknowledged greater than 54 hours of service downtime attributable to points akin to OTP delays and server fluctuations, affecting the reliability of biometric authentication. However these haven’t been simply latest occasions. A 2017 report discovered ‘complexities and issues’ within the Aadhaar-based Biometric Authentication (ABBA) system in PDS mechanisms in Hyderabad, with 66 % of households surveyed reporting glitches in not less than one of many system’s 5 technological elements.  

Migrant employees are sometimes away from their registered deal with 

E-KYC is commonly linked to the Aadhaar, which is tied to a everlasting deal with. On account of this, employees who migrate steadily are unable to entry their entitlements as they usually lack correct documentation or the power to authenticate their identification utilizing e-KYC after they transfer from one location to a different. This results in obstacles in accessing essential PDS subsidies.  

In June 2024, MoCAFP issued an order stating that migrant employees may go to any truthful value store close to their workplace to provoke their e-KYC by way of an e-POS machine. The info could be transferred to the employee’s residence state, and verification would solely be confirmed after approval by the involved state authorities. Regardless of this, a lack of expertise about this provision and cases of outright and arbitrary denial of verification by truthful value store sellers has pressured many migrants to return to their residence states to finish e-KYC. Furthermore, sellers reportedly additionally extort hefty sums from migrants beneath the guise of updating their e-KYC.  

Fearing that his identify may get deleted from the ration card, Girija Nayak,* a migrant safety guard working in Bangalore, rushed again to his village in Nabarangpur, Odisha, to get his e-KYC finished. Having been employed on contract as an informal employee, he informed us he was scared he had put his job in jeopardy by taking depart to journey. 

In gentle of the challenges confronted by individuals who couldn’t attain their nearest e-POS, MoCAFP launched the cell Mera eKYC app. It makes use of Aadhaar-based face authentication expertise and one-time password (OTP) verification to finish e-KYC. Whereas the app is helpful, an ongoing subject examine by Libtech has discovered that solely a restricted variety of ration card holders—those that have smartphones and web connectivity, and importantly, whose cellphone quantity is linked with their Aadhaar card—have been in a position to make use of it. 

Entry to clear data on procedures is restricted  

Regardless of a concerted push for necessary e-KYC for PDS entitlements, there’s inadequate details about its necessity, timelines, and the results of non-compliance. This lack of transparency has led to confusion and misery amongst ration card holders, a lot of whom are unaware of the steps required to finish the e-KYC course of or the implications of failing to take action. 

The accountability of informing these eligible about e-KYC necessities has steadily fallen on truthful value store sellers, who might not have the mandatory coaching or sources to supply correct steering. Along with this, proper to meals campaigners have famous that ration shopkeepers have been vested with the accountability to conduct e-KYC verification, successfully giving them energy over issuing or cancelling ration playing cards, which is the mandate of the Meals Division.  

Sellers themselves stay confused about this delegation of accountability. In December 2024, the Delhi Sarkari Ration Sellers Sangh filed a petition within the Delhi Excessive Courtroom towards this ‘pressured labour’. The applying categorically emphasised that the ration sellers had been non-public events who had been licensed solely to obtain ration from state authorities and to distribute it to the ration card holders assigned to their retailers. As per the licensing phrases, ration sellers are not accountable for verification and re-authentication of eligible people. That is primarily the accountability of the officers of the respondent Division of Meals and Public Distribution and the Vigilance Committees shaped in every state beneath the NFSA.  

In June, the Gujarat Honest Worth Retailers and Kerosene License Holders Affiliation additionally started a protest within the state calling the brand new requirement for e-KYC ‘unjust and impractical’. The motion put PDS providers on halt, leaving hundreds of individuals within the lurch. 

Violation of the precise to meals 

As unclear procedures and authentication failures proceed to pose obstacles to individuals’s entry to meals, activists and campaigns such because the RTFC have urged the federal government to instantly halt e-KYC of ration card holders and to as an alternative deal with giving ration playing cards to eight crore migrant and casual employees, as directed by the Supreme Courtroom in March 2024. The marketing campaign has additionally known as for the elimination of exclusionary digital measures akin to e-KYC and Aadhaar linking from PDS altogether.  

When subsidies are topic to biometric authentication, uninterrupted community connectivity, and bureaucratic compliance, the precise to meals turns into a conditional privilege. Such a techno-solutionist method, which disregards structural exclusions, lived realities, and the failures of public infrastructure, undermines the NFSA’s core premise—that of a ‘rights-based method’ to meals safety. 

Whereas cloaked within the language of effectivity and transparency, the necessary e-KYC regime has successfully weaponised digital infrastructure to exclude individuals on the premise of slender digital identifiers. In doing so, the state abdicates its constitutional responsibility to make sure meals safety. The proper to meals can not and actually should not hinge on digital legibility. To proceed down this path is to sanction systemic hunger by design.  

*Names modified to keep up confidentiality.  

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Know extra 

• Learn extra concerning the affect of the e-KYC verification course of on migrant employees. 
• Perceive the gaps within the One Nation, One Ration card scheme.  
• Be taught about the gaps in PDS protection and the prevalence of undernutrition in India.