J&K's proposed family ID and its features
- Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor’s announcement that the government has decided to introduce a family pehchan patra (identity card) for residents has been criticized by the mainstream opposition parties in Kashmir.
About the proposed family pehchan patra for J&K residents
- An identity card: will have a unique eight-digit alphanumeric number to identify each family and its members through the head of the family.
- Features:
- Will contain details of all members of the family.
- Linked with the Aadhaar and bank account number of family’s head.
- A single identifier for every family and individual in the UT
- Uses:
- To confirm family’s eligibility for government welfare schemes
- To facilitate direct transfer of benefits to their bank accounts with minimum human interference.
Objective
- To create an authentic, verified, and reliable database: of families to ensure speedy doorstep delivery of welfare schemes to eligible beneficiaries.
- To weed out duplicate ration cards & Aadhaar: Will help govt identify families that may have a number of educated youth, but without jobs.
- To collate information about families: to help in the delivery of welfare schemes.
- To help the government plan policy: based on authentic, updated population data.
- To eliminate need to visit govt offices: As updations will be carried out automatically, people will no longer have to visit local officials.
Similar initiatives
- Haryana: first state to introduce the concept of the family pehchan patra
- Punjab: introduced it last year for ensuring DBT to eligible families.
- Uttar Pradesh: Decided to launch a UP Parivar Kalyan Card for similar purposes.
- Rajasthan: has the provision of “Jan Aadhaar” which “aims to be the single identifier of a family and also an individual”.