Reimagining DBT for education

Hindustan Times

25-05-2025

Every year, as school terms begin across India, millions of mothers quietly become financiers of their children's futures. An alert from the bank confirms that the government has deposited a subsidy into their account—meant for books, uniforms, and tuition. In that moment, a welfare policy meets a parent's promise.
The implementation of India's Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) model in school education has taken a unique approach to welfare by shifting trust and choice to families - an act rooted in ensuring dignity. Yet this move towards efficiency and inclusion leaves a critical question unanswered: how do we ensure that this money meant for education is actually spent as intended?
The scale of education-linked DBT programmes in India is significant. Several states allocated large amounts to such schemes including Uttar Pradesh ( ₹1,000 crore in 2024-25) and Gujarat ( ₹313 crore in 2025) among others.
These programmes mirror international examples—Mexico's Prospera, Brazil's Bolsa Família, and Bangladesh's Female Secondary School Assistance Programme—where direct cash transfers have supported educational outcomes through both conditional and unconditional models.
While these programmes seem powerful, their success relies not just on disbursal but also appropriate usage of funds and this is where the gap lies.
In 1985, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had said that of every rupee spent by the government, only 15 paise reached the beneficiary. Now, DBT is streamlining subsidy delivery and improving transparency in the disbursal of funds in India saving ₹3.48 lakh crore up till March 2023.
However, tracking and monitoring final spending still remains a blind spot. This is especially important when the total expenditure under such schemes across sectors now crosses crores annually ( ₹7.05 lakh crore in FY 24-25).
Without expenditure visibility, we lose the opportunity to generate data-driven insights about the impact of government subsidies. This is especially true where support intended for school supplies or tuition may be redirected towards other pressing household needs. So, we are left asking: How do we translate financial transfers into educational outcomes?
India has already begun solving similar challenges in other segments through tech-enabled systems. The e-RUPI digital voucher system, introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), offers such a blueprint. This is a pre-paid, purpose-specific digital instrument that does not require a bank account for the transfer of benefits and can only be redeemed for approved goods or services from designated service providers.
A successful pilot in the fertiliser sector saw farmers receiving e-RUPI vouchers ( ₹100,000 for government schemes and ₹10,000 for private entities). This has facilitated real-time tracking of voucher redemption and reduced misuse by restricting the subsidy to its intended purpose.
With a successful pilot in this sector, the question is: why can't we apply the same principle to educational subsidies?
Now imagine mothers receiving vouchers as QR codes or SMS messages that could be redeemed for school supplies, tuition, transportation, nutrition supplements, or even health check-ups. A free hand to address the needs of their children will enable them to retain control and choice but within a framework that ensures the subsidy fulfills its purpose.
This offers three major advantages:
· Expenditure tracking: Governments can analyse how funds are used, enabling better planning.
· Leakage prevention: Vouchers cannot be diverted for unrelated purchases.
· Behavioural nudges: Tying funds to specific usage nudges families to invest in their child's education.
While the concept of purpose-restricted DBT is promising, any shift in welfare architecture must be implemented with political and social sensitivity. Any abrupt overhaul of existing schemes risks triggering resistance or unintended fallout while a phased approach may offer a politically viable transition. For instance:
● Year 1: Introduce purpose-linked vouchers for 10–20% of the total DBT amount.
● Year 2: Expand this proportion to 30–40%, based on feedback from beneficiaries and system stability.
● Year 3 onward: Aim for a target composition of 80% vouchers and 20% cash, ensuring most of the support goes directly into education-related spending
This phased approach accounts for the time mothers, vendors, and administrators may need to adjust while giving policymakers space to refine systems based on empirical evidence.
India is uniquely placed to implement this reform. The administrations have already built core digital infrastructure—such as UPI, DigiLocker, and the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar, and mobile numbers)—that can be leveraged to roll out the e-vouchers at scale. With collaboration between National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), state governments, and education departments, state-specific voucher ecosystems can be created without starting from scratch.
Most importantly, e-RUPI (used to disburse fertilizer subsidies) does not require smartphones or internet access. It can work on basic phones using SMS, making it inclusive for rural and low-income households.
However, a common concern with any technology-driven model is access. To address this, governments can earmark the first tranche of DBT funds to help eligible households acquire a basic mobile phone through direct provisioning or installment-based payments. This could ensure that no child is left behind due to lack of access to the very device that enables the benefit.
A redesigned DBT framework that retains trust and empowerment while adding a layer of expenditure fidelity is both necessary and achievable as seen in the pilot programmes.
For every ₹100 spent on DBT, we must ask: did this contribute to a child's book, bus pass, nutrition, tutoring, or health care? If we can't answer that question, we fail to connect public spending to public good.
The era of DBT has rightfully shifted the conversation from welfare delivery to ensuring lives of dignity. The next leap must be from transfer to transformation. Because when that alert pings on a mother's phone, it should do more than confirm a deposit. It should signal a system that trusts her, supports her, and helps empower her child.
This article is authored by Praveen Prakash, former principal secretary, School Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh.