Dr Alok Kumar Dwivedi

Welfare that Respects People, Not Just Supports Them

For long, the welfare system in India has been perceived as a means of free distribution or appeasement. The Uttar Pradesh governance model under Yogi Adityanath has attempted to shift this paradigm. The emphasis has been on the delivery of benefits in a respectful and transparent manner, so that poor families are empowered and not dependent. The welfare programs pertaining to housing, toilets, health, ration, and women empowerment are being implemented through systems and not through middlemen.

Technology Bringing Honesty in Welfare Delivery

The Family ID platform is integrating Aadhaar, Digi Locker, and departmental databases to facilitate easy access to close to 98 social welfare schemes for more than 15 crore citizens. The application of AI in social welfare is enhancing pension, scholarship, and family benefit schemes monitoring by detecting real beneficiaries and minimizing errors. In the health sector, electronic health records and AI-based health platforms under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission are enhancing disease surveillance, maternal, and child health tracking, as well as telemedicine services.

Moreover, changes in the Public Distribution System (PDS), such as the setting up of e-POS machines in over 80,000 fair price shops and the cancellation of approximately 30 lakh fake ration cards, have greatly reduced leakages and fraud, ensuring that beneficiaries receive benefits directly and safely.

The most notable shift has been the adoption of technology. Through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), funds are transferred to bank accounts of beneficiaries. This has greatly reduced corruption and leakages. Reports indicate that DBT-based delivery is helping Uttar Pradesh save nearly Rs.10,000 crore annually, with about 9.1 crore people receiving benefits across 200+ schemes, showing the scale and efficiency of digital welfare governance.

Fiscal Discipline + Welfare = Sustainable Model

The main point of the fiscal discipline + welfare model is that a government does not have to make a trade-off between fiscal discipline and social protection. Rather, through efficiency gains, minimizing leakages, and precise targeting of beneficiaries, the government can enhance welfare without placing the economy under unsustainable fiscal stress. This model moves the emphasis from indiscriminate subsidy growth to precision-driven social protection, where every rupee of expenditure translates into social impact.

One of the key support structures of this model is Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and digital governance. In India, DBT has been instrumental in minimizing leakages and making subsidies more rational. Government-related reports show that DBT has achieved cumulative savings of approximately Rs.3.48 lakh crore through the elimination of fraud, duplication, and middlemen in the delivery of welfare.

Estimates of earlier periods also showed savings of more than Rs.2.23 lakh crore through the elimination of fake or duplicate beneficiaries in central government schemes.This shows how technology-enabled welfare can strengthen public finance and improve welfare delivery at the same time.

From an operational point of view, DBT provides direct benefit transfers to beneficiaries through bank accounts that are Aadhaar and mobile number linked (the JAM model). In recent years, the magnitude of DBT itself indicates its significance, as more than Rs.7 lakh crores were transferred in a single year, and the total transferred has crossed tens of lakh crores since its implementation.

In Uttar Pradesh, this strategy is also apparent through DBT-based implementation in agriculture, education, and procurement, such as direct transfer of seed subsidy to farmers, scholarship to lakhs of students, and direct procurement payments to farmers, which ensures faster payments and less corruption.

The overall strategy is that as leakages decrease, governments save money, which can then be invested in infrastructure, health, and development. In the long run, this generates a cycle where better targeting leads to savings, savings lead to investment, investment leads to growth, and growth leads to revenue, making welfare financially sustainable rather than a fiscal burden.

From Political Favour to Citizen Right

The development of welfare governance in India is part of a larger shift from patronage-driven distribution systems to more organized, rights-based frameworks for service delivery. Traditionally, the distribution of welfare benefits in some parts of India was, at times, channeled through local power networks or political affiliations.

Although this was sometimes useful for last-mile delivery through social connections, it also presented the possibility of exclusion, duplication, and leakages. By contrast, the modern welfare governance framework is increasingly organized around the idea of welfare as a right of citizenship, based on identity verification systems, digital databases, and direct benefit transfer (DBT) systems.

The development of digital infrastructure in India, especially in the form of Aadhaar identity verification systems, Jan Dhan financial inclusion initiatives, and mobile connectivity, has dramatically changed the welfare delivery infrastructure paradigm.

The DBT system allows welfare benefits such as subsidies, pensions, and scholarships to be credited directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries, minimizing the need for middlemen. Research and official statistics have shown that there have been major savings through DBT systems by eliminating the problem of ghost beneficiaries and minimizing administrative inefficiencies.

Another important change is the development of beneficiary databases and real-time monitoring systems. These systems enable governments to monitor scheme performance, beneficiary inclusion, and fund use in real time. The administrative accountability framework improves with the shift from a relationship-based to a data-driven approach to welfare.

Moreover, the portability of benefits, such as “One Nation One Ration Card,” has further reinforced the rights-based approach by ensuring that benefits are tied to citizenship, not location or political affiliation.

This shift also has sociological undertones. With the shift from a favor-based to a right-based system, the relationship between citizens and the state shifts from one of dependence to one of institutional trust. Citizens gain the right to demand services on the basis of eligibility criteria, not personal relationships. This is consistent with the principles of equality and social justice enshrined in the country’s constitution, as it ensures equal access to state resources.

On the whole, the transition from being a matter of political favor to a matter of citizen right marks a structural shift in the governance philosophy, which seeks to integrate the efficiency of technology with the accountability of democracy. It marks the gradual transition of the Indian welfare state into a welfare architecture where entitlement is based on clear eligibility criteria and is ensured by technological safeguards.

UP Model Is Being Discussed Nationally

People of Uttar Pradesh have noticed the social situation, Law and order situation, and BIMARU label as being on the back seat of development but now Uttar Pradesh is setting an example of its own development, UP Model in whole of India. The UP model demonstrates how the welfare, infrastructure, and investment can be integrated into one development system.

The thought is that when people are provided with housing, health, and food security, they are able to contribute to economic development in terms of employment, entrepreneurship, and skill development.

This is the Larger Governance Message, and its philosophy is simple, “Welfare should give security, Governance should give dignity, and Development should give opportunity.” In this manner, the welfare approach seeks to shift from politics of dependency to development of capability.