Bismillah Bee is 67 and lives in an urban slum in Hyderabad. Till 2016, she had access to subsidized ration. But that year her ration card was deleted. In 2021, her application for a new one was rejected after over 4 years of waiting.
Reason: Her husband owned a car.
Bee's husband, a rickshaw puller, died in 2021 after a two-year long battle with mouth cancer.
Bee, @ASEEM_India and @HRLNIndia, found out the car supposedly in her husband's name was owned by someone with a similar name.
Error of Telangana's integrated 360 degree profiling.
When I went to Bismillah Bee's house she was peeling garlic for a local business.
Under India's food security law, poor widows and old persons should receive monthly ration.
Bismillah Bee has been waiting for over 7 years to get her rightful rations.
Why is Bee still excluded? Because authorities favored the algorithm over her. Even when they accepted the error, they gave another reason to deny her food.
Telangana government prides itself in the "subsidy saved" by the use of Samagra Vedika- its 360 degree profiling platform.
Samagra Vedika creates a 360 degree view of an individual using various govt databases. The result is a "single source of truth" or "golden record" as govts call it.
It has become the single source of pain. Over 15,000 people were wrongly denied food in Telangana.
Despite my repeated RTIs, appeals and visits to offices, the state govt disclosed close to nothing about how the platform functions.
Instead, a top-ranking state official did something bizarre.
I spoke to the official on phone. He agreed to a demo of Samagra Vedika in Hyderabad. I am told to talk to yet another official. He and two other officers make me sit across the table in a big conference room.
They start a 'presentation'. Death of accountability by PPT.
Similar and updated version of the document linked.
I get to see a silly slide show at high speed. I am not allowed to record or take a copy. The govt is obligated to share it under RTI but a sham is played out for my benefit.
Imagine what an aggrieved citizen can possibly do when they become victims of such algorithm-obsessed impenetrable governance. So how do we assess the efficacy of this new magic wand?
I learned in a @pulitzercenter workshop, look at the scale of its impact on people.
And the impact is huge. In April 2022, The SC ordered in a case by @SQMasood @advcoling that a whopping 1.9 million ration cards deleted without a notice to beneficiaries should be re-verified.
Check image for data till July 2022.
Meanwhile, Bee and at least 4 other women went to the High Court, Telangana. @Mounisabidi_adv took up their cases. In Nov 2023, the HC said two of the petitioners were eligible to get food.
But they still have to wait till the state issues new ration cards.
Posidex Technologies Pvt. Ltd. that runs Samagra Vedika for the state did not respond to any queries and requests for interview.
No accountability on the use of these algorithms by the state or the company. For algorithms that decide the fate of millions of poor.
And, it's not just in Telangana. I travelled to 3 states to understand the impact of algorithm-based governance. I discovered a dystopic world. People's lives being upturned at scale - poor tagged as rich, the living listed as dead, women declared widows...
In these states, people got excluded from welfare because of algorithmic decision making. Officials are told to blindly follow messed up algorithms that they too don't understand. It helps pass the blame when the rightful are declared "ineligible" for welfare schemes.
Official across states' departments told me that they go by the algorithm's decision. Because "people lie and hide their wealth". Algorithm finds out this "hidden wealth".
Officials said that if the algorithm declares someone rich, they simply reject the person for welfare.
In a desperate move, a 102-year old man from Haryana took out a wedding procession in Sept 2022 to prove to that he was indeed alive. The 'program' had declared him dead, blocked his old-age pension.
Haryana's Family ID database & algorithms wrongly listed thousands as dead.
In Chhichhrana village in Sonipat, in a small locality at least 6 families were similarly denied pension for months. 9 year old girl in family shown as earning 6 lakh/yr, widows and old people shown as dead.
Again, after multiple rounds of district offices, sarpanch and notary signed affidavits saying they were alive, didn't earn that much, they didn't get their pension for 6 months.
Haryana CM admitted 44,050 out of 63,353 pensioners deleted by Family ID use were eligible.
Even after massive errors with the Family ID and state's acceptance, media reports show that exclusions have been happening.
In the race for automated welfare-delivery, govt's use algorithms to reduce expenditure. And thousands of poor lose their entitlements.
@Tapasya_umm reported from the states for @reporters_co and @ajenglish. Along with @kum_sambhav and @divijualsuspect. We have produced 2 stories on harms of algorithmic decision-making in welfare schemes. The stories were supported by @pulitzercenter
Read Part 1 on Telangana here.
Here's Part 2 on Haryana's use of Family ID to deliver welfare entitlements, here.
I want to thank the families of Bismillah Bee, Maher Bee, Methra Kasthuri from Telangana, families of Naveen Jaihind, Parveen Sharma, Dhuli Chand, Pankaj, Ompati, Daya Kor and all others for their support during my reporting trips.
I thank @DavidN1194 for his valuable inputs that shaped the story. @digitaldutta & @kartheektnie for their direction & work on the issue.
@mbahree my editor at @ajEnglish for guiding the ship to shore.
And, Finally, my dearest people at @reporters_co who always stood by me during the toughest of times. And never allowed me to lose confidence in myself.
If you like the work I do at @reporters_co please consider supporting us. To hold the powerful to account. To give you an in-depth view of the country. It requires immense resources. Donate to keep us going.
