At your doorstep: If AAP government can make home delivery of public services work, it will be a blow to corruption

Delhi’s AAP government has launched a scheme this week to deliver 40 public services at the doorstep of citizens. This is an important innovation if it works out successfully. The exercise spans a wide range of primary public services such as getting a driving license, water connection or ration card. Launched in association with a private agency, it envisages a mobile ‘sahayak’ visiting homes for a nominal fee to help people avail of these services. As the current dispensation of public services in India is a source of harassment and petty corruption, this is an important step towards ease of living if it succeeds.

Lower levels of government engaged in providing essential public services are notorious for corruption. Opacity of processes and low levels of accountability, which result in long queues and uncertainty, make things worse. The CMS-India Corruption Study 2018 identifies attempts to access primary public services as the most common reason why people pay bribes. In this context, the Delhi government scheme is an encouraging experiment in not only making life easier but also partially neutralising situations which encourage corruption.

One hopes the AAP government can make this experiment succeed, which will lead to replication by other state governments. The experiment also comes on the heels of governments thinking about how to use technology to reduce direct interface between citizens and babus. For instance, direct benefits transfer can substantially minimise corruption when it comes to delivery of welfare benefits. Curbing this kind of corruption can render patronage politics of one kind irrelevant. This, in turn, will benefit the political system by reducing the need for strongmen who are often criminals but nevertheless derive importance from being able to offset poor delivery of services and governance failures.