Niti Aayog utilises Polygon blockchain to issue caste certificates
The recent collaboration of Niti Aayog and UNDP to issue caste certificates through blockchain technology to tribal groups may reduce fraud.
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Highlights
- Niti Aayog collaborates with United Nations Development Programme to issue caste certificates
- The complexities of verifying certificates would be comparatively less after blockchain adoption
Recently, NITI Aayog, which is also known as India's apex public policy think tank, along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have utilised Polygon blockchain in issuing caste certificates.
As per the Niti Aayog, almost 65,000 caste certificates of the tribal population of Etapalli, Gadchiroli, have been issued, which made it one of the first officially recommended government pilot projects.
The district government of Gadchiroli has started a scheme to produce caste certificates that are cryptographically anchored on polygon POS blockchain, according to a statement made by Niti Aayog and UNDP in the Best Practices 2023 compendium.
Projects aims to reduce fraudulent incentive claims
With the use of uncensorable, publicly auditable data kept on-chain (on public blockchain), anyone may now instantaneously authenticate certificates. The initiative is being tested in the Etapalli sub-division of the Gadchiroli district, primarily serving the 70 percent Scheduled Tribe population, which includes many particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), including Madia and Gond.
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As per Niti Aayog and UNDP assessment, this project can drastically reduce fraudulent benefit/incentive claims. Moreover, it is said to prevent malicious de-platforming of a person who legitimately belongs to a caste and is entitled to government aid.
How blockchain integration will help?
People from underprivileged and tribal tribes are given special benefits in India, and caste certificates are used to confirm their eligibility. However, some people with bad intentions frequently falsify official documents to make claims for these benefits.
According to the report, blockchain-based certificates help in:
- Simple verification of caste certificates
- Lessen the fraudulent incentive claims
- Enhanced privacy as blockchain would store the information through hashing
- More decentralised apps will be built through the adoption of Gadchiroli smart contract Application Programming Interface (API).
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