Effective inclusion of citizens through e-Governance services: case study of direct benefit transfer in India

Traditional Government of any country does not include citizens as a part of the system leading to low trust levels. To eradicate this practice, E-Governance has been introduced which helps in efficient and transparent functioning of the government. The transformation from traditional governance to E-Governance is important and has been studied in the paper through the Case of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in India. Before the implementation of DBT, India was suffering from malpractices like delay in funds transfer, pilferage practices in government departments, act of corruption by government officials, fake identity of users claiming the amount, and mental/physical harassment to the citizens, for the various types of funds transfer and social welfare schemes. But after effective roll out of DBT, there was a reduction of approximately USD 20 Billion reported on fake accounts in seven years cumulatively across multiple schemes in India. This has led to a good economic growth of the country and has also improved the trust level of citizens on the government of India. It has also led to increase in enrolment of girl child in schools or higher education, reduction of grievances of pensioners, and reduction of false claims. Other nations can learn from this case of effective inclusion of citizens.