USR - Unified Social Registry

The Unified Social Registry (USR) is the national registry of vulnerable households. It belongs to the country, not to the institutions that feed it: each institution collects for its projects, but once validated, the data enter a common registry where each household has a unique and stable identity.

Overview

The model

Institution ──► Projects ──► Programs ──► Beneficiaries
                   │
                   └── collection (Kobo, Survey Solutions, file)
                              │
                              ▼
                        Pre-collection ──► validation ──► REGISTRY (USR)

Concept	Description
Institution	Ministry, agency, NGO, donor, project... Each institution carries one or more projects
Project	Collection and funding framework. A project configures its own collection tool
Program	A project's scheme, with its eligibility criteria
Beneficiary	Eligible household, selected by a program
Registry	All households that entered the USR, across institutions

The USR identifier

Each household entering the registry receives a USR identifier: twelve randomly drawn digits with no meaning, the last of which is a check digit (Verhoeff). It is displayed in groups of four:

2001 2046 0973

This format follows India's Aadhaar, and each of its choices answers a known failure mode:

Choice	Why
No meaning	An identifier that encodes a date, a sex or a place discloses them, and becomes wrong the day the attribute is corrected
Random draw	A counter reveals enrolment order and volume
Verhoeff check digit	Catches any single-digit error and any swap of adjacent digits, the failure mode of a number read out over the phone
Digits only	Numeric keypad, USSD, SMS; no confusion between O and 0

USR identifier and household code

The USR identifier is the household's identity in the registry. The household code (ACC-12435, PRSSB-4471...) is only a collection code, specific to the numbering of the project that entered it. Both coexist; the USR identifier is what lists display and what search looks for.

Entering the registry

A household enters the registry from the collection screen, once its collection is validated:

1. Collection: import from Kobo, Survey Solutions or a file, with the project's account
2. Validation: data check on the pre-collection screen
3. Integration: match check, then assignment of the USR identifier

See Integrating households and Pre-collection workflow.

Once in, the household is marked In the registry, which the USR registry filter of the household list lets you find.

Who sees what

User	Sees
Administrator	Everything
USR privilege (granted on request)	All households in the registry, whichever institution collected them
Attached to an institution and projects	Households, programs, beneficiaries, payments and complaints within their scope: what their institution collected, plus what takes part in their projects
No institution and no privilege	Nothing

The USR privilege is set on the user's record (National registry access). Seeing the whole registry is a decision, never the absence of an attachment.

PMT score per project

The PMT score belongs to the project: each project has its PMT method, managed in Settings > PMT methods. A household is scored with the method of the project it is selected in; a household with no project, or whose project has no method, has no score. There is no national method.

A program can have its own method, which recomputes the score for its evaluation only. A grid-type method cannot be assigned to a project.

A low score means a poorer household. The score feeds each program's eligibility, which may add its own rules: the PMT measures the household, eligibility is the program's decision. See the PMT score methodology.

Access

• Households: the registry list, with the USR identifier, search by identifier and the USR registry filter
• Data Collection > Households tab: pre-collection, where households are validated then integrated
• Institutions: institutions and their data sharing agreements (administrators)

Permissions

Action	Permission
View the registry	View households
Validate a collection and integrate it into the registry	Validate households
Reject a collection	Reject households
Grant access to the whole registry	Administrator, on the user's record
Manage institutions and sharing agreements	Administrator