Last month, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Chhattisgarh launched the first phase of the Sanchar Kranti Yojana, a scheme to provide
smartphones to more than 50 lakh families below the poverty line. According to the initiative, one phone will be provided per family and will be registered in the name of the female head of the house.
However, scheme documents accessed by Scroll.in show that the state has not only asked for the Aadhaar numbers (or enrolment numbers for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric ID yet) of applicants and their family members but also signatures giving the government consent to use those Aadhaar numbers. The documents do not explain why or how the government intends to use this information.
