Pooja Devi Kol lives in Dabhaura, a small village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, and is expecting her first child in four months. Lately, she has been forced to divide her time between managing her pregnancy and filing multiple applications for state maternity benefits.

Courtesy of a 2017 scheme, introduced by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, first-time mothers in India are eligible for payments totaling $68. The sum is roughly the price of a low-budget smartphone. But, for Kol, whose husband is a construction worker and earns a monthly wage of around $40, that is a significant amount of money. 

The couple plan to use the cash to purchase baby food and clothes for their child. The problem is that Kol, 19, does not have an Aadhaar biometric identity card, which makes the payments impossible to claim. She explained that she has applied for the card three times, assisted by a worker at her local Anganwadi rural childcare center. For undisclosed reasons, each attempt has failed. 

“I’ve gone to the Anganwadi and stood in line for hours several times, but my application keeps getting rejected,” said Kol. “It’s exhausting and I start feeling dizzy due to the long hours.”