Farmers carry more cards than you

credit cards

Mumbai: You thought you were the only one fed up of carrying too many plastic cards? Imagine the less financially savvy farmers and villagers, who have to juggle around as many as seven different ones.

And while credit cards are a personal choice and are applied for, the farmer has no choice but to accept the cards that come his way, as his crop and livestock insurances and other government health schemes all make it mandatory to have a card. Each.

Now, LIC to introduce credit cards

So, the farmer either has to take the card or have to live without crop insurance.

The farmer is forced to carry the Kisan Credit Card, Crop Insurance Card, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana Card, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana Card.

Don't give away your card details

Also, in case the farmer has taken a loan from a bank for the cattle or a tractor to plough, the same has to be insured and a separate card carries the data on this insurance, said N P Mohapatra, assistant general manager at National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard). These cards may increase further as various states are rolling out their own schemes and duplicating identification cards. Many other financial goodies are out on their way to reach the poor and the unbanked as well.

“The textile ministry wants to issue another health insurance scheme and we have suggested that instead of issuing another card they should aggregate the amount with the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana being run by the government,” a source told DNA Money, requesting anonymity.

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The issuance of these cards by various authorities increases the cost of operation and also the confusion amongst the farmers. “One card costs Rs 28-150 depending on the technology used,” Mohapatra said. Various agencies use carious technologies such as smart cards, cards carrying photographs, biometric cards (which use finger prints for identification). The costs are repetitive as well, as the cards last for a maximum period of 3 years.

Experts say technology can enable a means whereby all the different products can have the same identity card and the transactions data for all different financial products can be stored on a single chip.

Nabard chief general manager A Ramanathan told DNA Money, “There is a way being worked out. But having one card for all products requires working together with a lot of entities. Bringing so many people together will take some time.”

“At the government of India level, a pan-India one number is being discussed, which could solve the problem,” Mohapatra said.

The unique single number for each person could well be his/her mobile number, he added.

“Mobile technology uses a similar chip and payment is made by sending an SMS. There are some security issues involved in mobile banking and payments, which if once sorted out could mark the future,” he said.

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Some of the Rs 500 crore in the Financial Inclusion Fund, which was announced in the last budget and is being handled by Nabard, may be used toward developing technology to solve the multiple card problem, according to Nabard officials.

A solution is essential as the costs of providing and replacing cards are turning out to be costlier than a monthly insurance premium for the villagers.

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