Social Benefits Made Easier with Women

The need for social welfare

Now more than any other time in recent history, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that social benefit and welfare programs are absolutely critical. It has been a time of uncertainty. With lockdowns, restrictions, and stay-at-home mandates, most people who have to ‘go out to the streets’ to work have arguably had it worse than others. In India, these people – informal and unorganized workers living daily from paycheck to paycheck, make up almost 90% of the entire country’s workforce. But living on a daily paycheck means that households depending on these workers are one day away from poverty. This state of zero resilience also means that the government needs to step up as part of their social responsibility – a core role of government.

Many agree that government needs to help. In 2021, Fight Inequality in India ran a poll and found that 95% of their respondents agree that the Indian government should provide unorganized workers with a universal minimum social security benefit. The good news is that the government also agrees.

India is a big place and has long been home to very many different and disparate social security and welfare programs. These are aimed at as many different segments of people as you can think of – farmers, tribes, women, the elderly, retirees, students, small business owners, people suffering from specific illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, people living with disability, nomadic tribes, informal workers, and many more. Not to talk of the ‘new poor’ who have lost their livelihoods because of COVID and COVID-related lockdowns.

But number doesn’t mean effective or efficient.

The challenges of administering social welfare

Even though the concept of giving ‘free’ money to people may seem straightforward, it’s far from it. Complications arise from many areas as seen by some of these more obvious questions - how does the government know who fits their target segment definition? how does that target segment know that the social welfare exists? how do they get the skills and know-how to apply for the social benefit? how does the government verify the identities of the target segments so that they’re sure it’s getting to the right person? how does the money actually reach them especially when most of these target segments don’t typically have bank accounts? how does the money actually reach them without being leaked due to corruption or middlemen charges? how does the money reach them now that going to physical locations is less desirable because of COVID-19?

Clearly, this is a space where innovations, outside the box thinking, regulations, and more come in. The government actually hasn’t been lazy about this – a lot has been going on for over a decade to address these challenges. Some initiatives have helped to reduce inefficiencies; for example, the digital ID system (the popular Aadhaar) which has given most of India’s 1.4 billion citizens a way to verify their identities, and Jan Dhan bank accounts, a low-cost account for the unbanked. But issues still persist. Issues that this civic tech startup, Haqdarshak, aims to address in India.

How Haqdarshak is helping

For a small fee, Haqdarshak helps Indians discover social welfare programs, helps put together the application requirements and make the application, and ensure that eligible applicants receive the social benefits. The startup is unique because it merges digital and physical approaches to provide this service. This is sorely needed in India because many beneficiaries are un/under-educated, and many welfare schemes also provide physical goods (like food) as part of the benefit.

So how does Haqdarshak work? The last-mile, rural, doorstep approach needs some relationship building and trust. The startup achieves this through their field agents, typically women who work in the communities they live. These field agents, called ‘Haqdarshaks’, are trained and work through their agent app to find welfare schemes via the app on behalf of the potential beneficiaries. They then give hands on support to put the application together and submit it to the relevant welfare provider (whether government, NGOs, or even corporates). They continue their support (e.g. tracking progress) until the benefits are paid out. The Haqdarshaks can charge the citizens a fee (for which the app recommends an amount) for their service – on average, about USD 45 for about 70 hours of work for one applicant.

This isn’t the only way Haqdarshak helps. The startup works with partners to craft their welfare scheme using data-based research, target beneficiaries, and issue the benefits straight to them. They also use their Haqdarshaks to help target segments apply, but the partners pay the Haqdarshaks’ stipend. Also, many partners want to help their workers access government benefits, and the startup works with them to facilitate this.

Haqdarshak’s approach is impactful for several reasons. First, their agents are mainly women – and as they say, when a woman earns, her whole household benefits because she spends her earnings on them. Giving women this means of livelihood (which they can also use to supplement other incomes) is critical for women empowerment and overall community building. Up to 18,000 Haqdarshaks have been trained and are providing services in their communities across 22 states.

What’s more, partnerships has helped the startup scale up this access to government programs, which undoubtedly helps citizens be more resilient. Their partners range from Uber to Tata and many more national companies, all looking (through their CSR programs) to ensure that their workers get the social benefits they are entitled to.

So far, Haqdarshak has been able to reach about 1.5 million citizens.

What’s next for Haqdarshak

True to its innovative nature, the startup isn’t staying still with its products and services. It recently launched the same service and model, but this time aimed at micro and small enterprises. Small companies can get on their platform and search for welfare schemes to help them grow. And agents work with the business owners to get their applications in order.

Haqdarshak is also leveraging its experience with partnerships to do more. It has entered into a coalition with Dvara Money, Dalberg, Acumen and other players, committing to provide social benefit access to 11 million Indians over 3 years. Within this model, the startup is launching a social benefit card (called Yojana card) with Dvara Money so that citizens can get paid directly from the government.

Finally (for now at least), Haqdarshak recently launched a WhatsApp chatbot to provide information about the welfare schemes, application status, etc. It’s currently launched in both English and Hindu with more languages to follow. Given that WhatsApp is used by 390 million Indians, this is a key step towards closing the awareness gap about social programs - something Haqdarshak has been working on as part of its core service.

Overall, Haqdarshak is offering a service that is clearly needed, for which both corporate partners and citizens are willing to pay for, but is still interlinked with social progress of Indian households and communities. Its success shows just how viable the social enterprise model is and I look forward to seeing how they continue to innovate to close the gaps they’re already working on.