Pension,the e-way

A pilot scheme in Shahpura,Rajasthan,makes it easier for people to collect their pension....

It was a monthly drill that 67-year-old Shakuntala Sharma had got weary of. She would wait impatiently for the postman to drop by with the monthly money-order,her husbands pension,and when that wouldnt happen,travel 15 km to the Shahpura sub treasury office and pick fights with the staff there. Not any more. Now the pension goes straight to the bank close to her home and she gets a call on her phone as soon as the money is transferred to her account,usually in the first week of every month.

For years now,I have been getting an old-age pension on my husbands behalf. The money order came by post but most of the time,it was delayed by over than a month. We never knew when the money was sent or when it would arrive, she says.

The Shahpura sub treasury office,around 60 km from Jaipur in Rajasthan,has been chosen to implement a unique pilot project in the state,the first of its kind in the country,called e-Sanchar or an e-Speech Application through Network for automated Communication Help And Response.

Tanmay Kumar,Rajasthan secretary,Information Technology and Communication,who mooted the concept,says the E-sanchar project integrates mobile telephony and internet services. The project is about giving information to rural citizens under various welfare schemes. In e-Sanchar,a voice call is generated to the beneficiarys telephone landline or mobile telling them that a payment has been made, says Kumar.

The pilot project was launched for 3,200 pensioners falling within the Shahpura region and has been a success so far. First we tied up with a local bank and insisted that all beneficiaries open accounts in any bank close to their homes. They then had to register with the STO and give them bank details along with their addresses and phone numbers, explains Kumar. As soon as the money is transferred to the bank,each beneficiary gets a call on his/her mobile number.

Pappu Gurjjar of Chapdakala village,some 12 km from Shahpura,says that earlier,while his disability pension took more than 30 to 40 days to reach him,he now gets it in a week. I get a voice call in the first week of every month. The call informs me that my money has been sent to the bank and also gives a number to call for complaints, says the 26-year-old.

Senior officials say they decided to use voice calls since most people own mobile phones or live close to someone who does. But the designing of the system wasnt without problems. Sanjay Karnik from the IT department says,We decided to avoid pre-recorded calls or a human system to cut costs and improve efficiency.

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The IT department outsourced the project to a local software company,Data Infosys. They developed a text-to-speech converter,which reads information written in English and converts it to Hindi. It is not an easy task since Indian names in English are often complex, Karnik says.

Pension is only one of the e-sanchar systems applications. Since it is fully automated and allows personalised messages,its applications are numerous. For example,it can be used to inform citizen of welfare schemes or even to inform ration card holders that their quota of supplies has arrived.