Ten years back in Rajasthan, the postmen would go door-to-door, distributing pension papers to the surviving family members of government officers. Ever since Bhamashah card was introduced in Rajasthan, things seem to have changed. Unlike before, the pension is directly transferred into the Aadhaar card linked bank accounts of valid pension holders. The postmen no longer hand over pensions to individual members, as the government has digitized the process of pension distribution. Today, Rajasthan takes pride in its extensive online pension distribution system.
Appreciating the government’s efforts, the Centre felicitated Rajasthan government with a national award for pioneering the first online pension distribution system in the country. The director of Rajasthan Social Justice Department Mr. Samit Sharma received this award at MNREGA event held in Vigyan Bhawan (Science Division), New Delhi. The award was bestowed upon Rajasthan for:
- Felicitating swift online payments,
- Upgrading the existing government system and
- Maintaining complete transparency in monetary transactions.
For those who don’t know, Rajasthan is among those first few states in the country that freely embraced digitization in government offices and department. The state has gone almost completely online in terms of direct delivery of social security benefits to the BPL families.
This accomplishment results from linking major government services to Bhamashah card, which is issued in the name of the eldest surviving female member of the family. In time, Bhamashah has evolved as a means to empower women, bridge social gaps and to ensure direct delivery of pensions and other monetary benefits to legal beneficiaries.
Bhamashah Yojana, in a way, serves as a social welfare single window card that combines all collective services under one umbrella. All government services, including free medical treatment, welfare schemes, ration, and scholarships are delivered via Bhamashah card to ensure that the rightful beneficiaries get these benefits.
The government intends to expand these services in future.
