Lived experiences of surveillance at the margins during COVID-19 in India
Page 4 Manju Rajput, Drishti Agarwal
Aajeevika Bureau
“Until recently, it was very important to link your mobile number to Aadhaar. Those who could not link their number with Aadhaar are not getting updates if money has been deposited to their bank account.”
“E‑Mitra [service kiosk] [and] the bank’s representative who comes to the villages and gives money from the POS machine, they never provide all the details of the account, [they] do not tell the account balance… or how much money is there in the account…They say, ‘ you tell me how much you want to withdraw and go away from here…”
“Bank persons always say, ‘why should these people know all this, what will they do finding out their transaction history?’ All the people we spoke to said this was essential information for them, that they wanted to know… The statement services in the bank have halted since the last 2 – 3 months, the entry in the bank diary has stopped, and the entire process is closed.… The excuse is that there is a risk of infection due to coronavirus… But financial information is very important… This service has not stopped anywhere in the main cities… But in villages, in remote areas, it has stopped.”
“People whose mobile number is linked to their Aadhaar, they get the message… But not everyone is getting that information…
People do not know about [government] schemes, they do not know how much money is being received in COVID relief. If someone is eligible in 3 – 4 categories… They do not know which category the money is coming in and which it is not coming in… And it is also not clear which ministry is disbursing the money… The secrecy has been maintained. If the money does not come, then whom will they go to and advocate or demand… There is no transparency at all.”
Translated From Hindi