Document the horror

Odisha bank branch officials, who demanded proof-of-death of a woman from her brother, found a way around the lack of documents speedily enough, when he carried her skeletal remains to the bank. And that is the single point that needs emphasis. Compliance with rules is one thing, refusal to address the reality of document scarcity, and poor documentation across large tracts of India, quite another. In this case, the 52-year-old in Odisha’s Keonjhar had made multiple visits to the bank, which refused to budge without ‘documentation’. Again and again, we witness the wretched circumstances people land up in, because of an overemphasis on documentation, which disregards ground truths.

Documents to show eligibility – whether for claims to deceased kin’s savings, or right to be on a voter roll – are needed. But, why does getting the simplest of documents remain a bureaucratic nightmare.

Procuring documents is an ordeal. A name-change or a property deed, a duplicate academic certificate or proof of birth/death can be notoriously complicated. A missing certificate can block school admission. A misspelt name can stop a person from opening a bank account. Smallest corrections need affidavits & notaries & repeated visits to offices – or money to middlemen, for whom conjuring paperwork is livelihood. Document-seekers must jump through endless hoops.

Even digitisation delivered limitedly. Digitised, valid documents can be rendered incorrect, because somewhere in between, spelling errors were introduced, half addresses were uploaded, photos incorrectly mapped. Incorrect fields crop up on screens that aren’t on the physical document. Recall how NREG claimants lost earnings over mismatched biometrics, and non-recorded attendance. Red tape has no accountability .

In Bengal, 27L people who had documents couldn’t vote. Frustration drove a man in Odisha to dig up his sister’s remains. That bankers in Keonjhar quickly found a solution, shows that the delay, and runaround, was just bureaucratic tyranny.

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