Indian Government Uses Polygons To Issue Verifiable Caste Certificates

The Government of Maharashtra, one of India's state governments, has started issuing caste certificates over the Polygon MATIC/USD blockchain to citizens residing in Etapalli village, Gadchiroli district, as a part of the Digital India campaign.

In partnership with LegitDoc, the Maharashtra government is in the process of rolling out 65,000 caste certificates to aid the process of delivering governmental schemes and benefits.

As part of the Digital India effort, the Government of Maharashtra, one of India’s state administrations, has begun distributing caste certificates to citizens in Etapalli hamlet, Gadchiroli district, using the Polygon blockchain.

According to an article co-authored by LegitDoc CEO Neil Martis and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shubham Gupta, the caste certificate issuance via neutral web3 platforms aims to target 1.1 million economically challenged residents of the Gadchiroli district, with over 70% representing the tribal population.

Furthermore, the verifiable certificates aim to deter forgery efforts by bad actors to falsely claim government-provided benefits for the underprivileged. The duo also spoke about the importance of Web3 protocols in protecting the general public against deplatformation — both financially and non-financially.

As a part of the initiative, the LegitDoc platform fetches selective data from the government-run MahaOnline portal and uploads it to the Polygon proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. The system then generates a QR code and certificates, which can be verifiable by various government departments. In addition, "Even printed form of blockchain certificates can be verified using this new system," confirmed Gupta.

The Maharashtra government has previously implemented an Ethereum-based ETH/USD credentialing system to provide tamper-proof diploma certificates as a measure to avert document forgery.