Improving Public Service Delivery by Fixing Payment Systems
By Charity Troyer Moore
January 28, 2022
India’s payments infrastructure is the culprit for all sorts of State-related failures, in healthcare and beyond. For example, in 2017, nearly 100 children in a government hospital in rural Uttar Pradesh died over a short period from lack of oxygen – not because there was no oxygen available, but because the hospital was behind on payments to their oxygen vendor. During the pandemic, ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers have reported delayed and irregular incentive payments, despite their heroic efforts to fight Covid-19 (Behanbox, 2021).
What is wrong with these payment systems, and what can India’s 2022-23 Budget – due to be announced on 1 February – do to fix them?