| Abstract: | Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes were introduced in India to reduce leakages and corruption by ensuring that welfare benefits reach intended beneficiaries directly through bank transfers. Although the DBT framework is technologically driven and designed to eliminate intermediaries, evidence from policy documents, government reports, and existing literature reveals the continued role of elected people’s representatives such as Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs), Panchayat representatives, and municipal leaders as welfare intermediaries in the implementation of DBT schemes in India. Drawing on secondary data, the paper analyses how political actors influence welfare delivery through awareness generation, access facilitation, grievance redressal, and the mobilisation of political credit. The study argues that rather than depoliticising welfare, DBT schemes reconfigure political mediation within digital governance structures, highlighting how direct transfers continue to operate through informal political mediation. |
