Government mandates Aadhaar linking for welfare schemes but resists applying it to its own health scheme
Quick Look
Despite issuing multiple office memoranda since June 2015 to make Aadhaar linking mandatory for the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), the government has repeatedly withdrawn the directive due to resistance from its employees, while enforcing Aadhaar linkage for welfare schemes benefiting the poor, including daily wage schemes offering Rs 300 per day.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Over 3,100 Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes and 360 public services use Aadhaar-based authentication for targeted delivery. The Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) serves serving and retired central government employees, family members, MPs, judges, and accredited journalists in Delhi.
Govt has issued office memoranda making Aadhaar linking mandatory several times
Over 3,100 DBT schemes and 360 public services use Aadhaar-based authentication. Yet the bureaucracy that demands Aadhaar from citizens, often the poorest, has resisted linking their own Central Govt Health Scheme cards to Aadhaar. CGHS beneficiaries include serving and retired central govt employees and family members, sitting and former MPs, sitting and retired judges of SC and HCs, accredited journalists in Delhi Aadhaar linking "has helped state ensure targeted, transparent and leak-proof delivery while eliminating duplicate and ineligible beneficiaries," said PIB. However, bureaucrats aren't walking the talk.What’s must for poor is voluntary for babus There is no annual verification to weed out dead pensioners or their dependents who might have become ineligible. Two other central govt health schemes, the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme and the railway health scheme, have made it mandatory to link Aadhaar. Govt has issued office memoranda making Aadhaar linking mandatory several times starting from June 2015, but has had to withdraw it in the face of stiff resistance from its employees. The last such withdrawal happened in July 2024 when the govt was forced to keep the directive to link CGHS beneficiary ID with Ayushman Bharat Health account ID (ABHA ID), created using Aadhaar, "in abeyance till further orders". The linkage has since been made voluntary for central govt employees, though it is mandatory for a poor woman to get Rs 300 as daily wage under the employment guarantee scheme. While Aadhaar has been mandated for "welfare schemes funded from the Consolidated Fund of India", including many DBT sche-mes, babus have been arguing that CGHS is a contributory scheme and not a DBT scheme, despite 90% of spending on the scheme coming from the Consolidated Fund of India.
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Their contributions amount to a tiny part of the annual expenditure on the scheme. CGHS incidentally has a higher per capita expenditure when compared to ECHS and the railway health scheme. It would be even higher if deceased beneficiaries and ineligible dependents were weeded out. Pensioner cards made at the start of computerisation of CGHS in 2005 remain active in the system without any checks increasing the chances of fraud and misuse of such cards.
End of Article
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The government may reintroduce mandatory Aadhaar linking for CGHS after addressing employee concerns
Possible · Within months
Open Questions
- Why do government employees resist Aadhaar linking for CGHS despite supporting it for welfare schemes?
- What specific concerns do bureaucrats have about linking CGHS cards to Aadhaar?
- Has the government assessed the financial loss from ineligible CGHS beneficiaries due to lack of verification?