Case Study · Blockchain
SEWA Digital Health Passport: blockchain identity for women in India's informal economy
The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and the Algorand Foundation launched a Digital Health Passport so women working in India's informal economy can prove who they are and what they qualify for. AMT contributed to the technology implementation on the Algorand blockchain.
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At a glance
- Initiative
- SEWA Digital Health Passport, by the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) with the Algorand Foundation
- AMT's role
- Contributed to the technology implementation on the Algorand blockchain
- Who it serves
- Women working in India's informal economy
- Built on
- Algorand blockchain, DigiLocker integration, custodial digital wallet, HashiCorp key management
- Pilot
- 200 women
- Rollout target
- About 200,000 to 300,000 members, starting in Gujarat
- Long-term vision
- SEWA's roughly 3 million members across India
The short version
Millions of women in India's informal sector struggle to get healthcare, insurance and welfare because their documents are scattered, damaged or lost. The Digital Health Passport gives each enrolled SEWA member a secure digital identity backed by a token on the Algorand blockchain, linked to documents verified through DigiLocker and held in a custodial wallet. Members never deal with wallets or tokens. They just get a record they can use to prove identity and eligibility.
The challenge
Identity, address, income and employment records for informal workers are often split across systems, physically damaged or lost. SEWA's Shakti Kendra community centres were already helping members collect and verify these documents, but the work was largely manual and hard to scale.
SEWA needed a platform that could:
- Digitise and verify critical member documents
- Reduce dependence on physical records
- Protect sensitive personal information
- Give members a portable digital identity
- Scale across a very large membership
The solution
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Algorand blockchain | A digital token issued on Algorand creates a tamper-resistant, verifiable record |
| DigiLocker integration | Connects to India's DigiLocker to verify and manage personal documents |
| Custodial digital wallet | Holds credentials for members, so nobody has to understand or manage blockchain |
| HashiCorp key management | Protects the cryptographic keys behind the wallets |
| Portable digital identity | A persistent, verifiable identity that cuts the need to keep producing paper documents |
How it works
- A SEWA member enrols through the Shakti Kendra network.
- Her identity and supporting documents are collected and verified.
- Relevant documents are retrieved and validated through DigiLocker.
- A Digital Health Passport and its blockchain-based credential are created.
- The credential is linked to a secure custodial wallet.
- She uses the verified record to establish identity and eligibility for healthcare, insurance or government services.
The blockchain gives an immutable way to verify records. The member's experience stays simple.
Scale
The initiative started with a pilot of 200 women, which validated how the Digital Health Passport works. It then moved into wider deployment through the Shakti Kendra network. The immediate goal is to enrol about 200,000 to 300,000 members, first in Gujarat. The long-term vision is SEWA's roughly 3 million members across India.
Impact
- Less manual document collection and verification
- Member records that travel with the member
- Better protection of personal information
- Simpler checks on eligibility for services
- A Shakti Kendra model that can scale
- A foundation for easier access to healthcare, insurance and government benefits
The key design choice: the technology stays almost invisible. Members get the benefit of blockchain-backed verification without learning what a wallet or token is.
Why this matters for anyone considering blockchain
This project uses blockchain to solve an identity and documentation problem, not a financial one. That is the test worth applying to any blockchain idea: does a shared, tamper-resistant record solve a trust problem that a normal database cannot? Here it does, because many institutions need to trust the same record about the same person.
Technology
| Area | Technology |
|---|---|
| Blockchain | Algorand |
| Digital identity | Blockchain-based digital credential (token) |
| Document integration | DigiLocker |
| Wallet | Custodial digital wallet |
| Key management | HashiCorp Key Management System |
| Domain | Digital identity, healthcare, social inclusion, Web3 |