Examine the role of Aadhaar-seeded DBT in plugging leakages in welfare delivery, with reference to PM-KISAN.

Welfare transfers in India long suffered from ghost beneficiaries, duplication and diversion. PM-KISAN — a Central Sector scheme routing ₹6,000/year to ~9.44 crore farmers and cumulatively over ₹4.46 lakh crore [1] — shows how Aadhaar-seeded Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) re-engineers the last mile.

How Aadhaar-seeded DBT plugs leakages

• De-duplication & identity lock: mandatory Aadhaar seeding, e-KYC and land-record linkage authenticate each beneficiary, blocking fake and duplicate entries [2].
• Disintermediation: money moves directly to bank accounts via PFMS–UIDAI–NPCI integration, removing rent-seeking middlemen [2].
• Exclusion filters: cross-verification with the Income-Tax database screens out income-tax payers, pensioners and government employees, targeting genuine cultivators [2][3].
• Demonstrated savings: tightened seeding deleted lakhs of ineligible names, curbing wrongful outgo and improving fiscal efficiency [4].

Limitations

• Exclusion errors: authentication failures, name mismatches and the digital divide can deny benefits to eligible farmers.
• Structural gaps: land-record dependence excludes tenant farmers and landless labourers, an equity blind spot [3].
• Aadhaar plugs identity fraud but not eligibility fraud via forged land records.

Way forward: pair biometric authentication with regular social audits, grievance redress and updated digital land records; explore cultivator-based (not ownership-based) identification, as some states attempt.

Aadhaar-seeded DBT has made PM-KISAN among the world's largest and cleanest transfer systems, advancing SDG-2 and cooperative federalism. Refining inclusion so technology empowers rather than excludes will make leak-proof delivery also justice-delivering.