National Health Authority (NHA) is mandated with the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). AB PM-JAY provides health assurance of up to Rs. 5 Lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care-related hospitalizations. The 10.74 Crore beneficiary families under AB PM-JAY have been identified from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 basis 6 deprivation and 11 occupational criteria across rural and urban areas, respectively.
NHA has collaborated with various ministries implementing welfare schemes to strengthen the different aspects of scheme implementation including inter alia beneficiary awareness campaigns, beneficiary database (SECC 2011) enrichment etc. The beneficiary database enrichment under AB PM-JAY would mean adding additional parameters to database for ease of search. The majority of AB PM-JAY beneficiaries from SECC 2011 are also eligible for benefits under National Food Security Portal (NFSA). NHA is working on integrating the SECC 2011 beneficiary database with NFSA, which will enable beneficiaries to seek information regarding their entitlement under the AB PM-JAY using their ration card number. NHA is also working on a proposal to use Fair Price Shops or Ration shops for providing information related to the scheme and entitlement under the scheme to eligible beneficiaries. This will provide an additional avenue to beneficiaries along with the existing Common Service Center, UTI-ITSL etc., for card creation. This will make the beneficiary identification process very convenient.
However, the existing beneficiary data available with various Government welfare schemes can be meaningfully utilized only if a common identifier is available. Aadhaar being a common identity across the majority of Government databases will enable this integration. Further, Aadhaar also ensures certainty regarding beneficiary identification through e-KYC. e-KYC enables paperless delivery of services in a targeted manner.
In this direction, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued OMs dated 27th October 2021, 6th December 2021 and 14th December 2021. These OMs have enabled sharing of Aadhaar (collected under any scheme) among different departments of Government. As per the OM, different departments of the Central Government, administering Section 7 or Section 4(4)(b)(ii) schemes, can be treated as a single entity under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.
Accordingly, the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DoFPD) has issued OM File No.14(1)/2018-Comp.Cell (E-342358) dated 06th January 2022 wherein States / UTs were requested to provide necessary assistance and cooperation for sharing of the NFSA ration card data along with the corresponding Aadhaar with NHA. The onus of ensuring the compliance of various provisions and regulations regarding data protection, data storage and data privacy, etc, and in particular, seeking consent will lie with the user departments i.e., in this case NHA.
Following the OM of DoFPD, NHA is following up with States/UTs regarding database integration. States and UTs are providing necessary assistance in this regard. None of the States or UTs has expressed any reservation to NHA in sharing the data. The process of database sharing has already commenced in several States/UTs.
