Indus Action

Indus Action, a policy implementation organization, is bridging the gap between law and action for vulnerable families in India. By providing access to a social protection net through a portfolio of welfare schemes, Indus Action will reach over 10 million people by the end of 2027.

The Problem
70% of India’s population lives in or is vulnerable to poverty. India has enacted many progressive laws that entitle their most vulnerable citizens to basic rights, but only 50% of public spending on basic services reaches the intended population. For example, contingent social security primarily covers the organized workforce, which constitutes only 8% of India’s working population.

India’s fragmented social protection landscape includes a patchwork of approximately 5,000 schemes operating in silos, resulting in high implementation costs and poor monitoring effectiveness. The problem is worsened by decentralized registries, user-unfriendly technological platforms, and discretionary distribution of benefits, which result in many eligible beneficiaries being left behind.
The World Economic Survey Report in 2016-2017 estimated that even programs that receive the most funds and attention have targeting errors as high as 60% to 70%. For example, a popular work guarantee program that aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas has inclusion and exclusion errors of 43% and 65%, respectively.

With 230 million people slipping back into poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the severe social and economic ramifications of a weak social protection system.

The Solution
Indus Action uses the power of data, technology, and policy to provide an effective social security net at the family level. Their portfolios extend to education, livelihoods, and public service delivery, enabling vulnerable families to access welfare entitlements like private school admissions, social security benefits, and subsidized credit. Access to these entitlements can enable an effective push out of poverty, allowing citizens to take on productive occupations.

Indus Action has adopted a multi-pronged approach to transform India’s social protection system:
1. Developing a civic-tech solution that leverages AI and machine-learning algorithms to predict eligibility to welfare programs and deliver social protection and education to families.
2. Building digital public goods to standardize public service delivery across entitlements.
3. Partnering with the government to improve administrative and citizen experience in welfare delivery.
4. Engaging with state frontline workers to build long-term system capacity.