299- The ID-Entity Bogey ( Pre UID/Aadhaar)
Taha Mehmood
Posted: Sun Aug 20 2006, 00:00 hr
A POPULAR anecdote on identity cards relates to William Morris, proprietor of British Monomarks who, in 1939, proposed to the British government that “the state issue each individual an absolutely un-duplicated... National Number”. The scheme was rejected then.
Decades later, India went ahead with pilots for the MNIC across 20 districts and 30.7 lakh people.
The MNIC is purported to be a smart card fitted with a 16K SCOSTA chip which will carry information like the unique National Identity Number, name, date of birth, fingerprint etc. The card is to be used for a whole array of transactions, from opening bank/pension /EPF accounts, trasferring property, purchasing railway/air tickets and registering in schools and hospitals, besides being proof of identity, marital status and citizenship.
So far, a number of MNIC surveys have encountered serious procedural and implementation problems, such as at Murshidabad, which failed to verify some 90 per cent of the population. Among them are some Iranian families living in Murshidabad for 70 years. The Indian authorities think they are Iranians and they should go back to Iran and the Iranian government believes them to be Indian.