Independent analysis · 2026
A phone the welfare system assumes
The question
Digitally mediated welfare (OTP, e-KYC, portability, many DBT corrections) assumes a woman can be reached on a phone she herself uses. NFHS-5 asks that question directly. It also asks whether she has a bank account she herself uses. Where the second exists and the first does not, the welfare system has an account it cannot easily speak to.
Gap = own-use bank account minus own-use mobile phone, women 15–49. Phase-II states only. Source: NFHS-5 factsheets. Spatial unit is the state. This is a ranked cartogram of the gap, published here as the map of the finding. A QGIS project file would use the same CSV.
Spatial unit: state. Sample: eleven NFHS-5 Phase-II states with published totals. Method: simple subtraction, mapped as a ranked cartogram. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are the severe cases in this set. Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh are not. The policy implication is local: a digital-first grievance channel in Bhopal is a different object from the same channel in Chennai.
This is basic QGIS work in spirit: a join of an attribute table to a geography. The geography here is represented as a ranked map because a national shapefile would overclaim completeness. The CSV in the artefacts folder is what one would join.