research-article

Biographies of Biometric Devices: The POS Machine at Work in India's PDS

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Preeti MudliarAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Article No.: 596, Pages 1 - 15

https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445553

Published: 07 May 2021 Publication History

Abstract

The centrality of the biometric point of sale (POS) machine in the administration of food security in Indian's public distribution system (PDS) invites scrutiny for its primacy as a non-negotiable artifact in the monthly PDS process. In this paper, I critically examine how the POS machine emerges as a site for varying imaginaries of a technologically-mediated welfare system for the three primary stakeholders of the PDS, consisting of the beneficiaries, dealers, and state administrators. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the paper traces the histories of interaction and portraitures that the three stakeholders bring to their description and interpretation of the POS machine. It shows that an active POS machine provokes the stakeholders in the PDS to view it as an artifact that invites engagement on practical, moral, and knowledge dimensions. The varying ‘biographies’ that stakeholders narrate of the POS machine, collectively reveal the design, disposition, and functioning of a social justice infrastructure that rests on the compulsions of biometric technologies to improve inclusion and deter corruption in welfare delivery.

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CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2021

10862 pages

ISBN:9781450380966

DOI:10.1145/3411764

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Tohoku University, Japan
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The University of Tokyo, Japan
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Microsoft Research, USA

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Chordia IBaltaxe-Admony LBoone ASheehan ADombrowski LLe Dantec CRingland KSmith A(2024)Social Justice in HCI: A Systematic Literature ReviewProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642704(1-33)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642704
Mudliar P(2024)Representing the adarsh biometric balak or the ideal biometric child: locating poor children’s care work in the Aadhaar welfare stateInformation, Communication & Society10.1080/1369118X.2024.230514827:4(665-682)Online publication date: 5-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2305148
Addo A(2022)Orchestrating a digital platform ecosystem to address societal challenges: A robust action perspectiveJournal of Information Technology10.1177/0268396222108833337:4(359-386)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962221088333
Ismail AYadav DGupta MDabas KSingh PKumar N(2022)Imagining Caring Futures for Frontline Health WorkProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35555816:CSCW2(1-30)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555581

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