All The Gaura Bais
When tech-based welfare delivery fails, who helps India’s digitally unlettered poor?
For ten months members of an all-women household in a tribal village in MP – 80-year-old Gaura Bai, her widowed daughter-in-law and her three small grandkids – have lived under a tree, after razing their own kuccha house in village Lohari, Dhar district. They demolished their hut last Sept because, as TOI’s July 7 story of the shocking incident (‘House Lost, Hope Stalled’) reported, their panchayat told them that to claim the amount under PMAY-Rural, she would have to demolish the structure, ‘show the computer an image proving’ she had no house. This was, of course, a total misreading of the scheme. Tragedy is that most of India’s disadvantaged rural groups, like Dalit or tribal women, are so impoverished, they aren’t equipped to spot an absurdity or a fraud – far less cross-check or factcheck a sarpanch or officials. And should they dare to question officials, consequences can be severe.
Her application was made using her MNREGA card. But a ‘system glitch’ stalled her allotment. Till March 2025, in MP, over 37L PMAY-Rural houses had been built. Gaura Bai can be seen as one case that fell through the cracks, unseen in all the govt and thinktank audits on PMAY-R. But that’s not the point. She has paid the devastating cost of an overly tech-dependent system, which has no Plan B that can be locally addressed. Given 60% of PMAY-R allotment is meant for SCs and STs, how can govts not see the chasm between tech-enabled systems and beneficiaries of the scheme – a largely digitally unlettered population? The TOI report resulted in govt assuring Gaura Bai accommodation till her allotment is resolved. Who compensates her for the hardship of 10 months? Who is accountable for technical flaws? Gaura Bai’s case came to light courtesy TOI’s report. How many Gaura Bais may be out there, stranded on a technical error?
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