Civil society group seeks assurance against voter ID-linked welfare exclusion

• Citizens for Fraternity Forum has sought clarification over reported plans to require voter ID and biometric authentication for welfare payments

• The group urged the government to ensure that absence from electoral rolls, lack of voter ID or failed authentication does not exclude eligible beneficiaries

• Its letter to Panchayati Raj Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh called for alternative identification methods and accessible grievance redressal

A civil society group has asked panchayati raj minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh to clarify his reported remarks on using voter identification for welfare payments and publicly assure beneficiaries that their electoral-roll status will not determine access to benefits.

Citizens for Fraternity Forum, or CFF-Bharat, wrote to the minister following reports that an Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number and mandatory biometric authentication would be required to access financial benefits under schemes of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

The group said it supported efforts to improve transparency, strengthen accountability and prevent misuse of welfare programmes. However, it sought safeguards to ensure that changes to identification procedures did not exclude people who otherwise met a scheme’s eligibility requirements.

The letter, dated 12 November, was signed by former Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, former Aligarh Muslim University vice-chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah and former diplomat Ashok Kumar Sharma, among others.

“No eligible citizen should be denied welfare benefits merely because they do not possess a voter ID, their name is not included in the electoral rolls, or biometric authentication fails,” the group said.

Its central concern was whether voter identification would become an additional condition for receiving welfare support, rather than a means of establishing a beneficiary’s identity.

The forum urged the government to keep entitlements tied to the eligibility rules of individual schemes. It also called for accessible alternatives for people unable to produce the specified document or complete biometric authentication.

Particular attention was needed for elderly people, women, persons with disabilities, migrants and other vulnerable citizens, the letter said. The group sought effective grievance-redressal mechanisms so that identification difficulties could be resolved without eligible beneficiaries losing access to support.

Singh, also known as Lallan Singh, had reportedly indicated that voter ID would replace Aadhaar for identifying beneficiaries. He was also reported to have said that access to financial benefits and welfare payments under his ministry’s schemes would require an EPIC number alongside compulsory biometric authentication.

The forum asked the government to explain how these requirements would operate and issue an explicit public assurance that inclusion in electoral rolls would not become a prerequisite for welfare benefits.

It also sought safeguards against exclusion arising from missing documents, electoral-roll omissions or authentication failures.

The supplied report did not include a government response to the letter or an official notification setting out the scope and implementation of the reported changes.

With PTI inputs