- Why in news
- On 28 June 2026, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the 'PM Family Care Tracker' pilot project in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It links child records to birth and death registration data to deliver welfare schemes.
- What it is
- The PM Family Care Tracker is an integrated monitoring platform that links a family's and child's records with birth and death registration data. It aims to identify beneficiaries and deliver government scheme benefits without separate applications. It is at pilot stage in Gujarat.
- Data link
- The tracker is integrated with birth and death registration data.
- Unique ID
- Every child gets a unique ID and number, so scheme benefits can reach them automatically.
- Monitoring
- It creates an integrated monitoring system to identify needy individuals and give them special attention.
Schemes: 52 Prelims questions since 2013, 10 in Prelims 2026 alone. They test features, the period and who funds it. In Mains, 33 news-triggered questions, mostly GS3.
Why it matters
- Automatic identification of beneficiaries can cut exclusion errors and reduce the need for applications.
- A single child ID linked to birth records can help track immunisation and nutrition coverage.
Problems
- Linking sensitive family and child data raises privacy and data-protection concerns.
- Accuracy depends on complete and timely birth and death registration, which varies across states.
Way forward
- Set clear data-protection safeguards, purpose limits and grievance redress before scaling up.
- Evaluate the Gujarat pilot and improve civil registration coverage before national rollout.
Put in your answer
Delivery through DBT: The Minister cited Direct Benefit Transfer as the means by which money for the poor reaches them directly.
- 2014Mains GS2 · Q15Whether Aadhaar and NPR should run concurrently, and their developmental potential
- 2013Mains GS2 · Q13Whether electronic cash transfer for welfare schemes minimises corruption and wastage
- 2022Mains GS2 · Q8Limitations of Direct Benefit Transfer in reforming government delivery systems
- 2017Prelims Q43Likely consequence of implementing UPI, including direct subsidy transfers to poor
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Pilot linking birth and death registration to unique child ID for scheme delivery; a lasting topic but pilot-stage with few testable facts.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.