ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the social struggles accompanying shifts in management systems from paper-based record-keeping to biometrical e-governance. It reflects on the materiality of the old and new media of recording in relation to social imaginations and practices of handling. The chapter explores the relation between writing and scanning in the concrete context of Delhi's welfare system. In 2014 – after the union parliament passed the National Food Security Bill – Delhi reformed its public distribution system. The old ration cards were phased out and new NFS (National Food Security) cards issued to all citizens who could prove their BPL status and provide aadhaar numbers for personal identification. The transition from a paper document (ration card) to a plastic card (NFS card) and biometric verification has consequences for food security and people's perception of self in systems of governance. In the process of making things work, they shape the role, authority and meaning of media in evidentiary practices.
