Creator's Note:
In 2019, the government launched One Nation One Ration Card with the promise that migrant workers could collect subsidised rations anywhere in India. The coverage statistics are impressive — 77 crore beneficiaries, 97% of the eligible population.
Then economists Chinmay Tumbe and Rahul Kumar Jha looked at the actual usage data. Interstate transactions—the primary purpose for migrants—run below 5 lakh per month. Delhi alone accounts for 67% of all interstate use. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which host millions of migrant workers, report a few hundred transactions each.
The reason? "Finger nahi kaam kiya" — the fingerprint didn't work. Manual labourers whose hands are worn from construction, brick kilns, and farm work find that the biometric systems can't read them. The bodies that build India are illegible to the machines meant to feed them.
Data source: Tumbe & Jha, "One Nation, One Ration, Limited Interstate Traction" (2024)
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