User-Centered Digital Applications to Streamline Social Protections in Rural India

Delays in processing social protection payments significantly harm vulnerable households. To address this challenge, we developed PayDash, a user-centered digital application designed to streamline government payment systems within India’s MGNREGS, the world’s largest workfare program. In a large-scale randomized controlled trial across three states, PayDash reduced payment processing times by 24%, increased participating household workdays by 9%, and generated estimated benefits to low-income households that were 71 times the platform’s costs within the first year. Following sustained demand from participating states, we enhanced PayDash’s technical features and administrative management, focusing on a policy pilot in Bihar, a low-capacity state with persistent wage payment delays. Supported by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), we are now seeking IGI funding to embed PayDash technology into multiple government applications already in widespread use, expand user training, and conduct a field process evaluation to refine and optimize the platform. This integration aims to improve payment and verification efficiency across various social protection schemes, reduce bureaucratic overload, and enable a full transition to sustainable government ownership and scale-up, ultimately benefiting millions of vulnerable citizens nationwide.