Falling through the Cracks: Case Studies in Exclusion from Social Protection

In this ongoing series, we will cover stories of citizens who have been excluded from social protection benefits delivered through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Public Distribution Systems (PDS). In collaboration with Gram Vaani a grassroots-level social tech company, we document the stories of beneficiaries who have faced challenges in welfare access in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. A working framework to study exclusion in social protection has been employed to analyse these cases, mapping points of exclusion accross the four key stages of scheme design and delivery as detailed in the timeline below.

We are also excited to announce that Dvara Research, in collaboration with Gram Vaani, University of Montreal, and Tika Vaani has been selected for the Azim Premji University COVID-19 Research Funding Programme 2020, to develop SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) for grievance redressal in social welfare schemes. The below case studies on exclusion will be part of this project and will help us build solutions frameworks for redressal of issues related to social welfare schemes.