Abstract

India’s growing reliance on digital identification biometric authentication online databases and technology-mediated verification is transforming how citizens access public welfare and essential services. While digital verification can improve administrative efficiency reduce duplication and facilitate faster service delivery it can also introduce new forms of exclusion when citizens experience authentication failures data inconsistencies connectivity problems or limited digital literacy. This paper examines how datafied welfare systems reshape everyday citizenship by analysing citizens’ experiences of verification documentation accessibility trust and administrative dependency. Drawing upon recent scholarship on digital governance welfare technology and social inequality the study argues that digital verification transforms citizenship from a primarily document-based relationship into a continuously data-mediated interaction with the state. The analysis highlights how technological ef