Gujarat scraps 6.34 lakh ration cards in five years: Data cleanup or silent exclusion?
AHMEDABAD: A fresh disclosure in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday has brought Gujarats food security framework under intense scrutiny, revealing 75,17,392 active ration cards but overshadowed by a persistent and rising wave of deletions across the past five years. In total, Gujarat has removed 6.34 lakh ration cards between 2020 and October 2025, revealing a continuous churn in its beneficiary list. The deletions signal an ongoing verification drive that has raised pressing questions on beneficiary identification, data accuracy and administrative accountability. What began in 2020 as a seemingly routine correction with 47,936 deletions ballooned dramatically in 2021, when removals shot up to 2,19,151, sparking immediate questions about what exactly was being filtered out. The trend continued: 1,32,519 deletions in 2022, 1,35,362 in 2023, and another 30,889 in 2024 kept the system in constant churn. By October 2025, an additional 69,102 cards had already been deleted. In total, Gujarat has struck 6.34 lakh ration cards from its lists in six years, a scale that makes clear this was no one-time clean-up. The spike of 2021 marked the highest annual jump, but the momentum in 2022 and 2023 each crossing 1.3 lakh deletions showed that the pruning exercise had become structural. Gujarat removes 22.68 lakh workers from MGNREGA records Even 2024 and 2025 continued the purge, adding over one lakh more deletions. Each years figure feeds into the next, raising the critical question of whether Gujarats system is improving accuracy or signalling administrative inconsistencies and possible silent exclusions. The Centre, however, placed the responsibility on the States/UTs, reiterating in Parliament that identification and management of NFSA beneficiary lists lie entirely with state governments. This clarification narrows the accountability lens squarely on Gujarats verification mechanisms while distancing the Union Government from operational decisions. According to the official explanation, deletions were triggered by duplicate entries, ineligible beneficiaries, e-KYC mismatches, recorded deaths and permanent migration framing the purge as both demographic and technical housekeeping. Importantly, the government stressed that no ration card was cancelled solely for failing e-KYC or Aadhaar authentication, pushing back against concerns of digital exclusion. Adding a final layer of complexity, the government claimed that no formal complaints of wrongful deletions have been received. Yet the absence of complaints amid rising deletions raises its own question does it reflect efficient governance or limited access to grievance mechanisms among vulnerable households? As the figures accumulate year after year, the emerging narrative is sharp and conflicted: an expansive data cleaning drive that Gujarat presents as essential maintenance, but one that critics fear may be quietly edging out those who need support the most.
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