Tribal group in India gets blockchain caste certificates

The caste system is the black mark of India, not only figuratively but also literally. Privileges are taken away and given to Indians based solely on their caste and colour. These differences may occur discretely in urban cities, but are often seen in rural parts of the country.

“the lower caste” [Scheduled Castes, SC; and Scheduled Tribes, ST] people make a living cleaning toilets and catching and killing rats, among other horrible jobs that people elsewhere would never sign up for. Although a majority of people look down on them just because they belong lower caste, the rich express no reluctance whatsoever to take the already meager number of benefits the SCs and STs receive in exchange for the lifelong humiliation they face at the hands of their own nation.

Recently, a similar incident took place in a small town in the state of Maharashtra, where a former elected politician had fraudulently acquired tribal land by claiming to be a tribal member with a fake caste certificate. It took 28-year-old Shubham Gupta, an administrative officer in Maharashtra, to file a legal complaint against him, after which the politician was convicted by the Supreme Court of India in July 2022. The politician worked within Gupta’s jurisdiction. Yet it took Gupta’s networking skills to ensure the politician returned the land to its owners – the tribals.

“This is probably one of many such incidents happening in India on a daily basis. It’s a shame, but what can be done? The poor cannot fight the rich, and even when they do, the well-connected rich [upper caste] oppressing them by using unfair means,” Vikram Kanwar, a veteran journalist in India, told CoinGeek.

Blockchain caste certificates

This event prompted Gupta to create and implement blockchain cast certificates, which was assigned to nearly 65,000 tribal members in a remote region of Maharashtra by 2021. The certificates were developed on the chain, with the intention of curbing the fraudulent claims of government benefits for the disadvantaged.

“We provided 100 caste certificates, which were built on the blockchain through a paper representation with a verifiable QR code,” said Gupta, administrative head of Etapalli subdivision of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra.

Out of nearly 250,000 people in the state, about 200,000 are tribal members. First phase of the project delivered caste certificates to 65,000 members.

“Several organizations offer food, milk, etc., but hardly anyone focuses on giving them absolute equality. These people are not exposed to technology like urban crowds and do not speak English, but they are crucial members of our country and offer more than others recognize, Kanwar said.

“Gupta offered them the feeling of missing justice and equality,” Kanwar said.

A three-man team led by Gupta implemented the project, Legit Doc – a private platform that uses blockchain to create tamper-proof digital documents ordered through a government process, built on the Polygon protocol.

The certificates are described as “impossible to forge and easily verifiable”. The tribal people do not understand blockchain technology today, but Gupta emphasized that the children of the tribe can learn about blockchain and do something in the future.

Sad condition

Regardless of the laws like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, social discrimination and humiliation towards the underprivileged [lower castes] continue to persist. Over 40% of 1.4 billion Indians belong to lower castes, of which 9% are tribal members.

If we look at India, we see a technologically advanced nation that also struggles with poverty and a massive divide between the rich and the poor.

Dr. Craig Wright’s words while visiting Bogota, Columbia in 2019 fit in here: “Bitcoin has many benefits to offer; chief among them is freedom – from middlemen or even corrupt governments.”

“Latin America is ripe for growth,” he said, pointing that out developing regions such as India and Latin America have “a better opportunity to catch up and have faster growth than North America” ​​using Bitcoin [SV]which will enable them to “have information”.

Ironically, the Gupta blockchain caste certificate project began on the same day that India elected a tribal member as president, with Droupadi Murmu receiving a majority of the votes, for the first time.

Watch: Dr. Craig Wright Talks Bitcoin and IPv6 at IIT-Kanpur in India

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