West Bengal's Annapurna Yojana Scheme Sparks Concerns Over Excessive Data Collection and Disenfranchisement The West Bengal government’s new Annapurna Yojana, a cash-transfer scheme for women, has ignited fears of systemic disenfranchisement due to its sprawling 10-page application form. Designed to replace the previous Trinamool Congress-era Lakshmir Bhandar program, which provided Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,700 monthly, the BJP-led government has doubled the financial incentive to Rs 3,000. However, the scheme’s elaborate data requirements have drawn sharp criticism, with critics arguing that the form’s scope far exceeds what is necessary for welfare delivery. The Annapurna Yojana form, titled "Family Level Data Collection Form," demands an exhaustive array of personal and household details. Beyond standard identifiers like name, address, Aadhaar, and bank accounts, it requires the Aadhaar numbers of all family members, EPIC numbers with electoral-roll specifics, PAN and GST registrations, landholding sizes, vehicle ownership records, health insurance premiums, and employment categories for every household member. The form also probes into children’s vaccination status, school attendance, and whether they attend recognized or unrecognised madrasas. Most alarming are two fields that appear unrelated to the scheme’s core purpose: the beneficiary’s application status under the Citizenship Amendment Act and whether a person deleted from the 2026 special intensive revision of electoral rolls (SIR) has a pending tribunal case. These additions have raised concerns about the scheme’s role in integrating electoral and citizenship data into welfare administration, effectively creating a centralized database for public entitlements.#west_bengal #trinamool_congress #citizenship_amendment_act #annapurna_yojana #sir_2026
