Transition in India's Welfare Orientation
The transition of India’s welfare orientation towards a technocratic calculus is evident from the integration of technology-driven systems such as Aadhaar enrollments and Direct Benefit Transfer schemes. While this brings efficiency and coverage, it raises concerns about the erosion of democratic norms and political accountability.
Technocratic Rule and Welfare Schemes
Game-Theoretic Insights
Technocratic governance thrives in polarized political environments, shifting the focus from who deserves support to minimizing leakage and maximizing coverage.
Examples of Technocratic Implementation
- E-SHRAM and PM KISAN schemes represent innovation-led, measurable systems intolerant of ambiguity.
- There is a push towards auditable beneficiaries over rights-bearing citizens.
Decline in Social Sector Spending
- India's social sector spending has decreased to 17% in 2024-25 from an average of 21% in the previous decade.
- Key areas like minorities, labor, employment, nutrition, and social security have seen significant declines in funding.
Challenges with Right to Information (RTI)
- The RTI regime faces an existential crisis with dysfunctional information commissions.
- Over four lakh pending cases and vacant CIC posts highlight the lack of efficacy in addressing public grievances.
Concerns of Decontextualization and Accountability
- The Supreme Court’s Aadhaar dissent (2018) warned against reducing citizens to disembedded data.
- The Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System centralizes visibility but lacks accountability.
Recommendations for a Resilient Welfare State
- Embrace democratic antifragility and empower states for context-sensitive governance.
- Institutionalize community-driven impact audits and involve local bodies like Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan.
- Encourage civil society's investment in political education and legal aid to bolster community accountability.
- Strengthen offline fallback mechanisms, human feedback safeguards, and statutory bias audits.
Conclusion
For a Viksit Bharat, digitization must be aligned with democratic principles, ensuring citizens are partners in governance and not merely entries in a ledger.