Direct Benefit Transfers

Why? How?

Hosted by Shanti Ashram & the International Center for Child and Public Health

20th April, 2020

Shanti Ashram as part of its COVID 19 response is conducting and facilitating a number of initiatives for vulnerable children during this unprecedented lockdown. The initiatives focus on issues targeting health, food security, education, direct benefit transfers, online talent sharing, child-to-child dialogue, social cohesion, mental well-being and interfaith collaboration.

Our human resources are our most important assets and Shanti Ashram has introduced multiple interventions to 1) enable their well-being, and 2) appreciate their work ahead of and during the lockdown. We have also proactively organized multiple learning initiatives to deepen the knowledge and understanding behind our practical interventions for vulnerable children.

This session is dedicated to ‘Direct Benefit Transfer to vulnerable children & families’: The Why & the How?

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is an attempt to change the mechanism of transferring subsidies directly to pre-identified people. Ever since Government of India launched a country-wide DBT programme on 1 January 2013, it has dominated development discourses and citizens dialogue alike in India.

‘DBT’ is more popularly known as ‘direct cash transfer’ as the subsidies are expected to be transferred directly to the beneficiary account. The main aim of DBT is to improve the Government’s delivery system and redesigning the current procedure in welfare schemes by making the flow of funds and information faster and secure – reducing leakage of funds. This method however is not limited to Government deployment alone; many development organizations and foundations are also increasingly exploring DBT, its positives and the challenges.

The Indian Government-led DBT has 3 pillars i.e. identification of beneficiaries, opening up of bank account and seeding the Aadhaar number. To roll out the DBT, government has made four things mandatory: digitization of beneficiary databases, opening of beneficiary bank account, Aadhaar enrolment and seeding of Aadhaar numbers with the accounts. The linking of DBT with the Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts is to ensure money reaches its true beneficiary. The digitization of beneficiary is the responsibility of district administration and opening of bank account is carried out by Lead District Managers (LDMs). To know more about this social experiment, do dial in for this interactive session.

• Moment of Reflection
• Multi-intervention COVID 19 response for vulnerable children @Shanti Ashram
  Ms.Deepalakshmi Kumaradevan, Head, Bala Shanti Programme
• How Direct Benefit Transfers helped children and families living in poverty during the India lock-down?
  Ms.Monica, Community Development Organizer, Sustainable Development Programme
• Thinking behind DBT: Rationale, Opportunities & Challenges?
  Dr.S.R.Subramanian, Head, Sustainable Development Programme
• Shanti Ashram’s multi stake holder strategy for engagement during the COVID 19 response
  Mr.G.Vijayaraghavan, Head, Youth Leadership Programme
• Q & A