The Technocratic Welfare State: Efficiency vs. Democracy in India
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Governance (Direct Benefit Transfer - DBT, E-SHRAM, PM KISAN, Right to Information - RTI, CPGRAMS, Kudumbashree), Indian Polity (Aadhaar, Right to Privacy).
Mains:
GS Paper 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation; Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections; e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; Role of civil society.
GS Paper 4 (Ethics): Ethical concerns and dilemmas in government and private institutions; Probity in Governance.
Key Highlights from the News
India's welfare governance model, which relies on technologies like Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), raises concerns about whether it sacrifices democratic norms for efficiency.
This new "technocratic" approach views welfare not as a political and rights issue, but as a technical problem focused solely on preventing leakage and increasing coverage.
As a result, a rights-bearing citizen is reduced to merely an auditable beneficiary in a database.
Democratic discussions about welfare schemes decrease, and politicians delegate difficult decisions to algorithms.
Along with this shift, there has been a decrease in social sector spending. A backlog of cases in Information Commissions indicates a decline in transparency.
Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) centralizes complaints but not accountability. This creates a situation of "algorithmic insulation."
The article argues that resolving this crisis requires democratic antifragility, empowerment of states, community-led audits, and offline alternative mechanisms.
The article highlights Kerala's Kudumbashree as an excellent model.
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