What structural challenges hinder effective implementation of e-governance 

The COVID-19 pandemic then catalyzed a paradigmatic shift, ushering in the fourth phase in which technology has transitioned from being a service-delivery tool to constituting the epistemic framework shaping both policy objectives and implementation modalities. This transformation manifests across three interconnected dimensions. Let’s explore. 

Evolving role of technology in governance

First, technology’s role expanded to integrate health surveillance and public safety systems. Platforms such as Aarogya Setu and CoWIN marked a shift to large-scale digital public-health infrastructure, while Smart City command centers now integrate AI-driven analytics for traffic optimisation and resource deployment. 

Second, technology became fundamental to targeted welfare delivery more than ever. Systems like the Aadhaar enabled Public Distribution System (AePDS) employ biometric authentication, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has created a comprehensive digital health ecosystem. 

Third, there was a shift towards anticipatory governance through data analytics. Platforms like the National Data Analytics Platform exemplify how real-time monitoring pre-emptively shapes policy choices.

Unlike earlier phases that created enabling infrastructure, the current phase witnesses a growing role of technology as it anchors the very framework of legitimate governance. Digitisation has become a precondition for policy formulation and implementation. While this evolution has eliminated traditional forms of exclusion through corruption and discretion, it has simultaneously created new architectures of marginalisation. 

Three structural challenges particularly hinder the effective implementation of this fourth-phase e-governance vision.

Digital literacy and infrastructure deficit

One of the significant barriers to inclusive e-governance is digital literacy, as many individuals, especially in rural areas and among older populations, lack the skills to use e-governance services effectively. Only 38 per cent of Indian households are digitally literate, with 25 per cent in rural areas compared to 61 per cent in urban areas. Digital literacy among agricultural casual workers, who form the largest segment of the informal workforce, stands at just 13 per cent, compared to 53 per cent for non-agricultural wage workers. 

In view of India’s linguistic diversity, providing e-governance services in multiple regional languages remains resource-intensive and technically challenging, yet 98 per cent of internet users access content in regional languages. Many areas still lack reliable internet access and stable power supply, which are essential for e-governance platforms to function smoothly. 

The e-Shram portal, which is distinctively the world’s largest database of informal labour, exemplifies how technocratic, top-down design processes that prioritise backend data aggregation over user experience can sometimes overlook accessibility challenges. 

While 30.48 crore informal workers are registered, approximately 13.5 crore remain unaccounted for on the platform. The platform required smartphones, stable internet, functional bank accounts, and digital navigation skills, but there were few participatory mechanisms to understand users’ lived contexts or gather feedback during design.

Bureaucratic resistance, fear of job displacement, and lack of awareness additionally affect the adoption of many such e-governance initiatives. These challenges show how even well-intended e-governance schemes often overlook the structural constraints at the grassroot level.

Systemic factors requiring attention

India’s e-governance initiatives have pursued ambitious goals – reducing leakages through technological authentication and ensuring welfare benefits reach intended beneficiaries efficiently. The vision of using biometric systems to prevent leakage in welfare delivery and creating integrated digital platforms for seamless service access reflects well-intentioned efforts to modernise governance. However, implementation experiences reveal structural gaps that require addressing to fully realise these objectives. 

Biometric authentication systems, designed to ensure authenticity and prevent fraud, face challenges when deployed at scale in a country like India where people have multiple and diverse vulnerabilities. For instance, high rates of verification failure have been recorded in states, like 49 per cent in Jharkhand and 37 per cent in Rajasthan, due to factors like worn fingerprints among labourers or changed iris patterns among elderly citizens.

These authentication challenges emerge from gaps between technological design assumptions and ground realities, and affect eligible beneficiaries’ access to social welfare schemes..

In addition, citizens facing authentication failures often end up visiting centres multiple times to get their data corrected, while these authentication platforms do not have inbuilt accountability systems or grievance mechanisms for deficient biometric capture. Hence, strengthening alternative authentication pathways would help balance technological efficiency with human variability such that the system becomes more user-centric. 

Making e-governance more citizen-centric

Despite sustained efforts towards digital integration, coordination remains difficult because over 31 central e-governance schemes operate independently, with limited interoperability and overlapping administrative mandates.

These institutional arrangements can require citizens to navigate multiple platforms with different interfaces. When authentication fails, the reasons are not always clearly communicated to citizens, and alternative pathways may need to be strengthened. 

Here techno-centrism in e-governance risks producing exclusions by privileging machine accuracy over human variability. Developing robust alternative mechanisms would ensure that technological requirements do not inadvertently create barriers to accessing entitled welfare benefits, particularly for vulnerable populations whose biometric patterns may naturally vary or who have less capacity and awareness to contest these issues.

Post read questions

e-governance projects have a built-in bias towards technology and back-end integration than user-centric designs. Examine.

Reforming the government delivery system through the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme is a progressive step, but it has its limitations too. Comment.

e-governance, as a critical tool of governance, has ushered in effectiveness, transparency and accountability in governments. What inadequacies hamper the enhancement of these features?

Transformation of governance through digitisation has helped eliminate traditional forms of exclusion through corruption and discretion, but it has simultaneously created new architectures of marginalisation. Comment. 

(Shamna Thacham Poyil is a Doctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi.) 

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