Blockchain drives inclusion beyond finance
In a groundbreaking collaboration, the Algorand Foundation and India’s Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) have launched a blockchain-based Digital Health Passport initiative to revolutionize how millions of women in India's informal sector access vital health and social services.
The project leverages the Algorand blockchain to provide secure, portable, and verifiable digital identities, empowering women with control over their own data and the ability to qualify for and enroll in critical programs and services.
Background: Barriers for women working in the informal economy
The International Labor Organization reports that 82% of employed women in India work in informal jobs. Despite their significant contributions to the economy, they often face multiple disadvantages in accessing essential services due to the nature of informal employment and barriers they face in proving their identity.
The Indian government administers an extensive network of health and social service programs, such as health coverage, old age pensions, housing, food rations, and other welfare benefits. Accessing these programs requires verified documentation. Typical requirements include proof of identity (Aadhaar card), proof of address, income certificates, caste or category certificates, and employment records.
Informal work, such as domestic work, construction, waste picking, street vending, and home-based work, rarely includes official contracts or employer records. The labor is frequently low-wage, not secure, and outside the purview of formal regulations.
The result is that workers in this sector typically lack written contracts and do not benefit from social protections, such as pensions, health insurance, or maternity benefits. This lack of documentation is a consistent barrier to millions of women's access to essential programs.
There are two main problems women face in accessing programs. The first is information asymmetry. Women and their families don't know about the services and entitlements meant for them. The second is that they need support to collect the documents and navigate the systems to gain access to the programs.
- Mirai Chatterjee, Director of SEWA's Social Security team
Even among SEWA members with paperwork, women reported persistent problems with document loss, damage, or inconsistency across different sources. This "documentation barrier" prevents millions of women from proving their identity and eligibility for government schemes that often prove critical to strengthening their ties to the labor force.
In 2015, SEWA’s Social Security team established Shakti Kendra ‘empowerment’ centers in Gujarat as a formal program to try to ensure social protections and access to services to their members. In addition to the support provided through the centers, SEWA community workers go door-to-door gathering paperwork and information about the women and their families, guiding them on eligibility and the enrollment process for different programs and services.
The problem with this cumbersome manual approach of gathering information and entering data into spreadsheets back at the Shakti Kendra is that it cannot scale quickly enough to reach a significant percentage of SEWA’s members. The Shakti Kendras serve nearly 40,000 households and 200,000 members, but even with significant efforts from SEWA's staff, the manual system of collecting information has limited the initial reach to less than one-fifth of its members in the state of Gujarat.
The solution: blockchain-based digital health passport
Mirai Chatterjee, Director of SEWA's Social Security team, recognized the urgent need for a digital solution to safely store critical documents that may be lost, misplaced, or damaged as well to protect the privacy of its members who are asked to share documents with personal information to determine program eligibility. To address these challenges, SEWA sought a technology partner to develop a secure, scalable system to empower informal women workers.
SEWA connected with Algorand to understand how blockchain technology could be used to scale more rapidly, reduce administrative burden, and protect member privacy. SEWA Director Mirai Chatterjee first connected with Staci Warden, Algorand Foundation CEO, at the first Algorand India Summit, participating in a panel to explore the utility of blockchain to improve health care access. The collaboration brought together SEWA’s grassroots networks and Algorand’s technical expertise to co-create the Digital Health Passport.
The result is a secure, decentralized Digital Health Passport built on the Algorand blockchain—a tamper-proof platform designed to give low-income women ownership and control of their personal data. This digital identity solution provides a stable, transparent, and privacy-compliant path to essential services, including insurance, public health programs, and government entitlements.
Key features of the solution include:
- Integration with India's trusted DigiLocker system for automatic verification and management of key personal documents.
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Issuance of a digital token on the Algorand blockchain, stored in a custodial digital wallet protected by HashiCorp's Key Management System.
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Portable and verifiable records that reduce reliance on physical documents, which are often lost or damaged.
By leveraging blockchain’s transparency, immutability, and privacy-preserving capabilities, the Digital Health Passport enables women to securely prove their identity and eligibility for services without the administrative burdens of paper-based processes. This collaboration highlights how decentralized technology can help bridge the trust and documentation gaps that have traditionally excluded informal sector women from social and financial inclusion.
Implementation and community engagement
The initiative began with a successful pilot phase with 200 women to identify and resolve any initial issues. With the pilot's success, teams are now helping women acquire a Digital Health Passport across SEWA’s community center network.
Central to the implementation are the SEWA Shakti Kendras (SSKs), community resource centers run by women within their villages and neighborhoods. These centers act as trusted information hubs, educating local women about their rights, assisting in obtaining official documents, and connecting them to health services.
The SSKs are leveraging their established community trust to drive SEWA members' enrollment in the Digital Health Passport program. The new Web3 solution, powered by Algorand, is set to dramatically scale SEWA's reach by removing the administrative burden of manual document collection and verification.
The results
The initial pilot of 200 women proved the concept and functionality of the Digital Health Passport, and the program is now in full deployment across SEWA's community centers. The immediate goal is to enroll 200,000 to 300,000 members, starting in Gujarat, with the ultimate vision of including all 3 million SEWA members across various states in India.
By helping women access their documentation and upload it to a safe, digital repository, the SEWA/Algorand Foundation collaboration on the Digital Health Passport Initiative is a potent example of how technological innovation can help advance social and economic equity.
The hope is that the solution SSKs use today to help members store their documentation and determine eligibility for programs and services will eventually be integrated with the program office. When that happens, a member can provide consent for the government worker to access and view the digitized document and, thereafter, directly enroll in the program.
Blockchain solutions extend beyond healthcare
The success of the Digital Health Passport is one part of a bigger story for financial and social inclusion. This secure, portable digital identity model could open access to other critical services where informal workers are often excluded, such as insurance onboarding, access to subsidies, and pension plans.
A recent example comes from the Mann Deshi Foundation, which has launched an alternative credit score system built on Algorand’s blockchain. This initiative enables women entrepreneurs—who traditionally lack formal credit histories or documentation—to establish verified digital identities and portable, privacy-compliant credit scores.
Similar to the Digital Health Passport, the records are secure, smartphone-accessible, and integrated with India’s digital identity infrastructure, helping women access loans from financial institutions that were previously out of reach.
By reducing the administrative burden and replacing paper-based processes, the SEWA and Mann Deshi projects demonstrate how decentralized technology can bridge gaps and increase inclusion for women working outside the formal economy. Blockchain-based digital wallets provide a secure, portable solution to help them securely manage their identities and access essential financial and social services.
For more information about Algorand and the SEWA project, reach out here or message Anil Kakani, Algorand VP and India Country Head, on X.
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