Indian tribals get blockchain-based caste certificates

Tribals residing in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra have received immutable blockchain-based caste certificates where over 65,000 tribal members in the western part of the state are now supported.

Indian tribals get blockchain-based caste certificates

This project aims to stop leaks and corruption in the supply chain of welfare initiatives supporting the tribes and other underprivileged groups in the country. 

In India, reservations are almost 50% to different caste groups and to see that reservation go to the right candidate. this blockchain-based caste certificate will play an important role, the advantage of this project is cannot be faked and tampered with already known characteristics of the blockchain technology.

Source : https://gadchiroli.gov.in/

Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shubham Gupta Provide ideas for caste certificates for tribal groups. Shubham Gupta introduced this after it came to his notice that politicians were buying tribal lands on the pretext of being tribal. 

Shubham Gupta currently serves as Assistant Collector, Etapalli, and Project officer, at ITDP Bhamragad, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra state, over 100 caste certificates which were produced on blockchain by a paper illustration as well as Verifiable OR code were distributed. 

The total population of the 250,000 people living in the region is 2,00,000 approx 80% are tribe members of which over 65,000 tribals will get the caste certificate in the first phase. 

The caste certificates are based on Polygon-based blockchain protocols. 

Speaking on this, Neil Martis founder of LegitDoc the Web3 startup through which this project is being implemented has said that projects like these would enable the state government to control the menace of forgeries. 

Martis said: 

“Such a deployment sets a precedent for India to emerge as the frontier in building tech stacks on neutral web3 platforms, which are decentralization-aligned, de-platform-resistant alternatives to the censorship-prone US and Chinese dominated digital tech stacks”, Martis said. 

This new approach would generate a special QR code made up of blockchain proofs that would be inscribed on each caste certificate and cryptographically commit specific information from each caste certificate retrieved from the government MahaOnline portal to the Polygon blockchain.

Also, this caste certificate would be issued through CSCs which are accessible in all villages. 

The process would be more streamlined and temper proof to the open verification system being accessible on the government website. and allowing government departments or any other third parties to check the legitimacy of a certificate with one click. 

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989) India's caste system continues to be a pervasive reality and social prejudice and atrocities against backward castes continue to occur. 

Furthermore, Droupadi Murmu's 15th Indian president's focus on tribal development is back in focus. As per an estimate there are over 126 million tribes based in different states there is a need to spread this to all the tribals, this is a use case where blockchain technology can bring a change to a society that has been waiting for years to get its share of development and justice.

Related : Indian state government to use Polygon for issuing verifiable caste certificates