Despite privacy concerns and state reluctance to share National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries' Aadhaar numbers with the National Health Authority (NHA), the Department of Food and Public Distribution has urged states and Union Territories to share NFSA ration card data and Aadhaar numbers with the NHA.
States are learnt to have subsequently flagged concerns about the “security aspects of such a data transfer”.
The NHA’s initiative to map the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) database with Aadhaar and the public distribution system database aims to identify beneficiaries of health insurance programme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
NHA CEO R S Sharma wrote to Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey in a letter dated January 5: “…due to deficiencies in the SECC database, beneficiary identification (under AB PM-JAY) has become extremely difficult. In this regard, NHA has been trying different ways and means to enrich the SECC database, which can then be used to target beneficiaries. Possible mapping of SECC beneficiaries with Aadhaar and NFSA will help in the easy identification of beneficiaries.”
It will be "extremely unlikely" to attain Ayushman card saturation without mapping Aadhaar with the SECC database, he said.
Following Sharma's letter, Director (Public Distribution) Vivek Shukla of the Department of Food and Public Distribution is said to have written to states on January 6 requesting "necessary assistance and co-operation" in providing beneficiary information.
States have expressed concerns about the "security aspects of such a data transfer," according to an NHA official, as well as the potential of the Centre "using it for political gain."
The NHA also discussed the matter at a meeting with officials from the food department, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and the IT ministry on January 4th.
“Due to the lack of clarity on whether Aadhaar information can be freely shared between the ministries or not, there has been reluctance on the part of state governments owning the NFSA beneficiary information to share the Aadhaar details with NHA. This was raised by the NHA at the meeting,” another government official said.
At the same conference, it was highlighted how existing UIDAI circulars allow ministries and departments to share Aadhaar and related data "for effective scheme formulation and beneficiary selection."
Under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits, and Services) Act, 2016, the UIDAI permitted sharing of Aadhaar details between different government departments in October last year.
Over 10.74 million poor and vulnerable households will benefit from the PM-JAY scheme, which was launched in 2018. It seeks to provide a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. Beneficiaries will be determined using SECC 2011 deprivation and occupational criteria for rural and urban areas, respectively. The NHA is in charge of putting the PM-JAY scheme into action.
The user departments — in this case, the NHA — would be responsible for ensuring compliance with numerous requirements and regulations relating to data protection, data storage, data privacy, and obtaining consent from Aadhaar holders, according to an official.
“The NHA is planning to attain consent of beneficiaries through both online and offline modes, for example text messages or physical forms at ration shops,” the official said.
The CEO of the National Health Authority, the Department of Food and Public Distribution, and the UIDAI did not respond to requests for comment.
The Niti Aayog urged for the PM-JAY scheme to be expanded to cover a segment of the population without health insurance in October of last year, claiming that at least 30% of the population, or 40 crore people, are uninsured.
The Niti Aayog advocated increasing government-subsidized health insurance through the PM-JAY scheme to a broader set of beneficiaries as one of three approaches offered to achieve this.
“This is the only model out of three proposed which has fiscal implications for the Government. Though this model assures coverage of the poorer segments on the missing middle population, premature expansion of PM-JAY can overburden the scheme,” it noted in its report.
The report also recommended that data from government schemes be shared with private insurance firms. After obtaining consent from agricultural households, government databases such as the National Food Security Act (NFSA), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, or Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) can be shared with private insurers, according to the report, which suggests an outreach strategy.