Flagship course · Economics and policy
Social Protection and Welfare Delivery in India
Follow a household through being identified, being paid and being refused, and read the law for what it is owed.
Start module 1What you will be able to do
- Tell an entitlement written into an Act from a benefit that exists only in scheme guidelines, and find the section that grants it.
- Check the government's own figures on coverage, payments and leakage, each with its year and source.
- Find where a household drops out, from identification to payment, and the route to claim what it is owed.
About this course
Who gets counted, and what actually reaches them
India runs some of the largest welfare programmes in the world. About 80 crore people receive free grain every month through the public distribution system, a rural work guarantee of 125 days replaced MGNREGA on 1 July 2026, and pensions, farm support and maternity cash are paid straight into bank accounts. This flagship asks whether that machinery reaches the people it was written for. It follows a household through being identified, being paid and being refused, and it reads the law for what a person is owed and how they can claim it when delivery fails. It works from the statutes and from the government’s own figures on the National Food Security Act, the Viksit Bharat G RAM G Act, the Code on Social Security, NSAP, PM-KISAN, PMMVY, PM-JAY and PM POSHAN.
- Entitlement → Delivery → Redress
- India Focus
- Practitioner Judgement
Why a whole flagship on social protection
Over a lifetime an Indian household can depend on several public schemes, for grain when a harvest fails, for wages when there is no other work, for a pension in old age, or for a hospital bill that would otherwise take the land. The rules that decide who receives what are written in statutes and scheme guidelines, and they are carried out by a ration dealer, a panchayat secretary, a bank correspondent and a fingerprint reader. This course reads both. It treats a person who was entitled and received nothing as a failure of the system, and it shows how to find out how often that happens.
Where this sits. Three of our Deep Dives cover ground this course builds on: The Politics of Targeting, Informality and Social Protection and Cash Transfers and the Evidence. Read them alongside Modules 3, 10 and 7. The course pairs with Livelihoods in India for the work and income questions, Public Policy for how schemes are designed and funded, and MEL for Development for the measurement in Module 12.
The law before the scheme
An entitlement written into an Act can be claimed before an officer and enforced by a court. A benefit that exists only in scheme guidelines can be changed by an office memorandum. Every module says which kind it is dealing with, and quotes the section.
The government’s own numbers, checked
Ministry year-end reviews, written answers in Parliament, the DBT Bharat portal, e-Shram and the NFSA transparency portals. Every figure in the course carries its year and its source, and the exercises ask you to check the ones that matter.
The people the system misses
Tenant farmers outside PM-KISAN, households cut off when a fingerprint did not match, migrants counted in one state and working in another. A scheme is judged by its errors of exclusion as well as by its leakages, and the course weighs both.
“Every person belonging to priority households, identified under sub-section (1) of section 10, shall be entitled to receive five kilograms of foodgrains per person per month at subsidised prices specified in Schedule I from the State Government under the Targeted Public Distribution System.” National Food Security Act, 2013, s.3(1)
Assess yourself: social protection and welfare delivery
Six auto-graded questions on entitlements, targeting, the work guarantee, grievances and measurement. Pick an answer and check it. Each answer explains the reasoning. Nothing is stored and there is no sign-in.
Papers & Resources
A short reading list. Read the statutes and the court orders themselves, because officials and lawyers will quote them to you. Everything below is free to read.
The primary law
The National Food Security Act, 2013: ss.3 to 16, 28, 29 and 33, with Schedules I and II. The Government of India’s note on the Viksit Bharat G RAM G Act, 2025 (11 May 2026), and the Ministry of Labour’s backgrounder on gig and platform workers under the Code on Social Security, 2020.
The right to food case
The Supreme Court’s order of 28 November 2001 in PUCL v. Union of India, W.P.(C) 196 of 2001. A short interim order that issued directions on eight schemes, from the mid-day meal to the old age pension, and told every state when to comply.
The data you will actually use
The NFSA portal and the state transparency portals for ration cards and offtake, the DBT Bharat portal for transfers and claimed savings, the NSAP backgrounder for pensions, and the Department of Food and Public Distribution’s year-end review for 2025.
Research worth reading in full
Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar, Identity Verification Standards in Welfare Programs: Experimental Evidence from India, a randomised study of biometric authentication in Jharkhand’s ration shops. Then our companion to the Handbook of Social Protection Systems.
Practise the material and continue learning
Every flagship course sits inside a wider open-source learning network. The cards below cross-link this course with hands-on Studios, an AI study companion, the the 101 Series, reading companions, printable handouts, live dojos and the Pro Studio tools.
Four Studios do the work this course asks for:
- Budget & Fiscal Analysis: what the Union and your state spend on a scheme, Modules 1 and 12
- Digital Public Infrastructure: Aadhaar, payments and the last mile, Module 4
- Survey Design: measuring who receives a benefit, Module 12
- Policy Analysis: the capstone redesign, Module 13
An AI Study Companion for this course is not live yet: when it is, you will be able to question the material, get topic summaries and generate study aids at your own pace. In the meantime the Social Protection Lexicon covers the vocabulary.
- AI Companion · not yet available
Free foundational decks that pair well with this flagship:
Longer reading on the questions this course raises:
84 print-optimised handouts across 10 tracks: methods, ethics, frameworks, lexicons, quick-reference cards.
56 bi-weekly dojo sessions in the South Asian dev-practitioner cohort: case clinics, paper discussions, live Q&A.
11 Pro Studio tools plus 1:1 coaching, cohort access, and certificates. Sliding-scale pricing.