In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Thursday, September 30, 2010

634 - What’s in a number? - Indian Express

30th September 2010

Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi handed out unique identity numbers to 10 tribals in Tembhli village, Maharashtra. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) hopes to eventually give a unique 12-digit ID number to as many of India’s 1.2 billion people that want it: so far, signing up is voluntary. Understandably, much of the political rhetoric has been about how it will revolutionise life for India’s poorest who have few, if any, means to prove their identity, a most basic requirement for even accessing state-funded entitlements.

But the UID is about much more than enabling the poor to access government programmes and more even than cutting corruption and waste in government. The UID can be leveraged for use in a number of other applications, something UIDAI boss, Nandan Nilekani, is well aware of. The agenda for financial inclusion, for example. Along with a 12-digit number, people signing up for the programme can also opt to get a bank account number. Banks may not have the incentive to reach out to people with only limited financial resources on an individual basis: the transactions costs would be too high. But the UIDAI can cut costs by offering banks multiple potential customers with proven IDs and account numbers in a single window. The next step would be to combine the UID’s database with the outreach of mobile service providers to enable secure mobile banking that will act as substitute for the costly process of setting up more bank branches. Channelling the savings of the unbanked into the financial system can yield enormous gains for GDP.

There’s much in it for the educated urban classes as well. Consider the time, effort and transactions costs involved in getting a passport, a driving licence or even a new bank account. Most of the documentation needed, and processing time, is simply about establishing whether who you say is really who you are. The UID number could eliminate these cumbersome processes and delays: no long wait for a police verification on a passport application, for example. Just one 12-digit number can make the life of every Indian more efficient.

633 - Aadhar And UIDAI Are Fraud On Constitution Says Praveen Dalal - Techno Legal news


Posted on September 29, 2010 by Gunjan Singh

An initiative by a single person can transform into a mass action and people’s movement. The same happened in the case of Aadhar project of India or UID Project of India. Aadhar was formerly known as unique identification project of India. It is managed by Nandan Nilekani through unique identification authority of India (UIDAI).

Praveen Dalal has been the first and foremost opposer of Aadhar project and he expressed his concerns by providing the civil liberties aspects of Aadhar project. He maintains that civil liberties of Indians in cyberspace have been outlawed by converting the sole cyber law of India into an endemic e-surveillance code.

Since the Indian government is well committed to impose illegal and unconstitutional projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc, Praveen Dalal launched the exclusive civil liberties protection initiatives in cyberspace in India.

When asked about the rationale for the same, he informs that there has been a disturbing trend in India of imposing unconstitutional projects upon Indians by Executive with great disregard to the Indian Constitution.

In fact, projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc are “Fraud upon the Indian Constitution” where limited and regulated Executive powers have been transformed into absolute powers by the Executive. The role of Parliament has been completely ignored and eliminated in an Anti National manner by the Congress led government, warns Praveen Dalal.

It seems time has come to say no to the Aadhar project and UIDAI and put collective pressure upon the Congress led government to scrap anti national projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc.

632 - Aadhaar: How to get your unique ID from govt of India - The Times of India

Sep 29, 2010, 09.39pm IST

India's ambitious Unique ID project dubbed "Aadhaar", which aims to give every Indian citizen a unique number mapped to biometrics, was launched on Wednesday in the Nadurbar district of Maharashtra. The Technoholik.com team got a sneak peek at the UIDAI (Unique ID Authority of India) tech centre in Bangalore, to tell you everything you need to know about the enrolment process.

The setup

The enrollment officer (EO) sits at right angles to you and enters data into a laptop. The insight of the Aadhaar team here is that the person getting enrolled must see what is being entered. Thus there's a monitor in front of you, which mirrors the enrolment officer's screen so that you can point out spelling mistakes or other errors. If the person getting enrolled is illiterate, he or she can nominate someone to accompany and verify. There's a small laser printer behind the EO's laptop and a webcam, fingerprint reader and iris scanner account for the remainder of the hardware setup. Unless, of course, you count the light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a white "roll-up" chart behind you for the "passport photo studio" effect!

Compulsory information

Name (first and last name compulsory but middle name optional), Gender (Male/Female/Transgender) and Date of Birth are the compulsory fields. Whereas postal address is also required, it's more for the sake of mailing your UID number than strictly being a proof of residence. The EO asks you for a PIN code and the city/district fields are automatically populated. The rest of the address is entered manually.

Supporting documents

The UID team acknowledges the fact that a large number of people may not have any supporting documents to prove their identity. In this case, one is allowed to bring another resident who is already in possession of an Aadhaar number to be an "introducer" by vouching for the person seeking to enroll. Of course, there is scope for fraud either with a colluding introducer or by just using fake supporting documents. However, the whole point of Aadhaar is that one can only fake one's identity once and this prevents large-scale "ghost identity" creation, which is the bane of most Indian government schemes. The great PAN (Permanent Account Number with the Income Tax department) card scam after all involved a single person creating thousands of different PAN numbers.

Photograph

A photograph is taken of the person getting enrolled, purely for the purpose of printing it out on the enrolment receipt, so that illiterate residents have some way of knowing that the receipt indeed belongs to them. Beyond that, the photograph serves no biometric or authentication purpose.

Biometrics

First there's an iris scan where you look into a binocular-like device held up to your eyes by the EO. After that it's the four fingers of each hand, followed by both thumbs (a process familiar to those entering the US) for your 10 fingerprints.

The wait

The EO makes you review the data entered one final time before giving you a laser-printed receipt. Whereas the residents of Tembhali, the "Aadhaar village", were to get their numbers today, the rest of us won't be that lucky. We'll only get to walk away with our receipts and have to wait for the actual number to be delivered by India Post!

(Courtesy: TECHNOHOLIK.COM)

631 - Stiff resistance dogs India's ID plan - Asia Times


By Indrajit Basu

KOLKATA - Tembhali is little known beyond its neighborhood in northern Maharashtra. Yet, as Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi descended by on Wednesday, the tiny hamlet with less than 1,500 residents suddenly became the center of attraction in the global arena of e-governance.

India's prime minister and the ruling Congress party's leader were helicoptered in to officially flag India's most ambitious attempt to transform the way the state reaches its citizens - and also the world's largest identity program.

The so-called Unique Identification (UID) mission, which has been dubbed locally as "Aadhar" ("foundation"), the project will create

unique biometric identification numbers for each and every one of India's 1.2 billion people.

Ambitious yet highly controversial, UID numbers will be linked to fingerprints, iris scans, personal information, a microchip for easy scanning, and more. Led by a new government agency called the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the project is spearheaded by Nandan Nilekeni, one of India's most famous techie-entrepreneurs as the co-founder of Infosys, who has been given ministerial powers and a magnanimous (rumored to be US$3 billion or more) budget to implement the grand plan.

According to Nilekeni, among the scores of advantages for the country's people, the millions of India's poor who are without access to the government's plethora of welfare schemes would benefit the most from the new identification system. Much like the mobile telephony, the UID number would connect the poor to the broader and advancing economy of India, he says.

"The government has taken up this project for two reason; one is there are large number of Indians specially those who are urban migrants and rural poor who do not have any form of acknowledged existence by the state and therefore they face the challenge of harassment in their lives. They do not get access to public services either. So the one of the main purposes of this program is to make life easier for the millions of poor, migrants and marginalized (expected to be over 300 million) people. As well as to give inclusion to them," said Nilekeni.

The other is to make all government welfare schemes far more efficient by ensuring that they reach "each and every deserving poor", he says.

Even as the impoverished tribal farming community in Tembhali - many of whom do not even own the land they till - wonder how a unique identity, as Manmohan declared on Wednesday, "can change their lives", UID is meeting stiff resistance from civil liberties groups, privacy advocates, and legal eagles.

Critics condemn the UID as a blatant intrusion to privacy, a tool that will increase bureaucracy and corruption, and say that in addition to being hugely expensive and even illegal, the UID goes against basic human values.

"This project, has been initiated without any prelude: there is no project document; there is no feasibility study; there has been no cost-to-benefit analysis and there are serious concerns about data and identity theft," said Gopal Krishna, Member Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties.

Worse, Krishna added, a project "that could change the status of the people in this country, with regard to security and constitutional rights has been initiated without any legal authorization; just on the basis of an executive order".

The strongest opposition to the project has been generated by the fact that it aims to create a huge digital database containing sensitive personal information in one central location. This is a security risk of "immense" proportions, according to critics.

"Given that the country has hardly any capability in securing its digital database, and an absence of privacy laws, UID's plans of storing its data in one centralized database is an immense risk," said Sunil Abraham, an activist at the People Union for Civil Liberties. "The trouble with a centralized infrastructure is that if it is compromised, then all of it will be compromised, which can result in the collapse of the country's information systems."

Nilekeni deflects these criticisms, saying that the UID Authority will use "the best expertise for security and we also have a policy of proactively publishing strategy policy report and committee reports on our website as well." But arguments against the project stretch on.

"The other opposition is the use of biometrics for ID," says Abraham. "Our fear is that most parts of the country do not have power and if the system mandates that every time a rural resident has to prove his identity biometrically for say collecting subsidized food, chances are that the process will be slower and more prone to failure because of lack of infrastructure."

That, according to critics, could give rise to newer complication or even manipulation of the biometric data - and hence an additional opportunity for corruption.

"A typical unlettered person does not understand the complexities of biometric data collection and verification," says Jiti Nichani, a researcher and an advocate, Alternative Law Forum. "Given the rampant bureaucracy and corruption in the country, this would give yet another reason for the corrupt to siphon off the largesse of a welfare scheme elsewhere; corruption will increase manifold as a consequence."

Still, its flip side is not really devoid of selling points; some of UID's beneficial characteristics are undeniable.

For one, experts say, for every rupee spent on the government's welfare schemes, lack of identity of a poor Indian results in just 15 paisa reaching them. UID then can really revolutionize the way government services are delivered.

Besides, inability to prove identity is not only one of the biggest barriers that prevent the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies, or stymie the government from reaching out to the deserving. It also stops the government formulating appropriate welfare polices, plugging leakages, and above all, eliminating fraud and duplicate identities.

UID, say its proponents, will no longer allow someone to represent themselves differently across a number of agencies, which could solve a lot these problems.

"A UID will enable the poor grab the right to education, get jobs on migration, get medical benefits and even open a bank account and get a mobile phone connection," said Nilekni. "The transformative capability of the UID scheme can be enormous."

Nevertheless, providing an identity to one billion plus Indians in a country so devoid of basic infrastructure is a Herculean task.

Its real challenge may not lie in the concerns that critics have raised, but perhaps in the politics of governance and its reforms. Experts say the success of the project depends on the effective use of political authority, and how Nilekeni and Manmohan manage to address corruption in the political and official systems.
Nilekeni though is undaunted. "I am aware that there are a lot of challenges and this is a humongous project," he said. "But there is a lot of political will and support, and the government is firmly convinced that this project could change the face of India."

Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based correspondent for Asia Times Online.

630 - Angry villagers to boycott UID rally - India Today

Tembhli in Nandurbar district was transformed overnight into a picture-perfect village where Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi distributed the Unique Identity Cards (UID) to the first 10 recipients on Wednesday.

Just 2 km away lies Navalpur and Chandsaili, which were shortlisted as two of the three Maharashtra villages for the historic function to take place in.

"Our village was the first choice. The state government officials came here, did a survey and selected a couple of residents to receive the cards from the PM. The school got a fresh coat of paint, our kids got new uniforms and we were so excited," says Navalpur's Sudam Pawra.

The state machinery started work in Navalpur a month ago: concretisation of kuchcha roads started, the sole water tank was given a fresh coat of paint and social service messages were splashed on the walls of houses.

But the script went sour for Navalpur at the last moment. No sooner had the word came that Tembhli would host the historic function than work on all ongoing projects were abruptly dropped. The main approach road was left as it was - full of crushed stones - a sorry reminder of what could have been.

Angry villagers decided not to attend the Tembhli rally on Wednesday. "Our village was No. 1 only a week ago. Now it's back to zero. Tembhli will get all benefits… we have been deprived," a bitter Ransingh Gansingh Thakar said, adding that most of the Navalpur residents work as casual labour in Gujarat because they don't get jobs in the village. "Here, we hardly earn Rs 50 a day, that too, if we get work."

The story at Chandsaili, a By Deepak Lokhande in Nandurbar village about three km from Navalpur, is no different. Last month, the BSNL hurriedly installed a public telephone booth and the state electricity board installed new electricity meters. The touch- up job continued only till the news came that the PM was not coming.

But the Congress grip in the village was apparent as almost all the men attended Wednesday's event at Tembhli.

What angered the people of Navalpur more was the unofficial reason government officials gave for the PM's skipping the village - it seemed to be flourishing on its own with "big houses". "Look around sahib ... do you think these are bungalows?

Only the state transport bus conductor and this contractor have pucca houses here. Yes, we don't have thatched roofs, but does that make us richer?" Thakar asks, pointing at his hutment.

It seems Navalpur's status as a rehabilitated village did it in. The village was resettled at the new site after the original one submerged in the dam waters. The state gave the villagers cash in compensation and land for resettlement.

As a result, the village has a new look, unlike Tembhli

629 - 'Aadhaar', the Unique ID project goes live!- The Times of India


PTI, Sep 29, 2010, 05.20pm IST

MAHARASHTRA: The world's first ID project where biometric data is used to provide unique identification numbers for India's billion-plus citizens rolled out today with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi handing over the first set of 12-digit numbers to 10 tribals.

The country's most tech savvy initiative called 'Aadhaar'(base) to provide the unqiue ID cards was hailed by Singh and Gandhi aat the launch function as a "historic step" to provide identity to every Indian citizen and make delivery processes transparent.

Biometric-based data including from fingerprints and an iris scan is being used for the first time anywhere in the world to provide a cost-effective nationally valid and verifiable single source of identity proof through an authentification infrastructure

"Nowhere in the world, technology has been used in such a big way. I hope every citizen will get this number very soon," Singh said kickstarting the multi-billion project in the backward Tembhli tribal hamlet in western Maharashtra, about 300 km from Mumbai.

Singh also said the rolling out of the unique numbers displayed a symbol of a new and modern India. "We are moving fast in the field of technology."

He said the issuing of unique identity cards is a beginning of a big effort for the welfare of the common man.

"The poor did not have any identity proof. Due to this shortcoming, they could not open bank accounts or get ration cards. They could not avail the benefits of government welfare programmes because of this and many times, these benefits were pocketed by others," Singh said.

The 'Aadhaar' number will be for lifetime and can be used anywhere in the country, the Prime Minister said, adding the project will help in National Integration.

"I hope that soon every Indian will have a Aadhaar number," he said.

Gandhi said "The project launched from this village today, will reach over a billion people and is a historic step."

"Our goal is not only development but inclusive growth," she said.

Late Rajiv Gandhi dreamt of a 21st century India where Information technology will improve life of 'aam aadmi', she said, adding that Tembhli village is a symbol of "Rajiv's vision".

"We are using technology to better our lives. It can make the system transparent and ensure speedy delivery of resources to the needy without any malpractice," she said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chief Nandan Nilekeni, the former co-chairman of Information Technology major Infosys, was also present at the function.

UIDA said the government plans to give every Indian a number in the coming years after they submit their personal details, including fingerprints, an iris scan and photograph, to a vast Internet database.

It said the scheme would provide a cost-effective, ubiquitous authentification infrastructure to easily verify identities online and in real-time.

"Today there are a large number of residents, especially the poorest and the most marginalised, who face challenges in accessing various public benefit programmes due to the lack of possessing a clear identity proof," it added.

Fingerprints and iris recognition will help agencies and service providers across India clean out duplicates and fakes from their databases, it said.

628 - Orissa to add 12 more specifications to UID


PTI | 08:09 PM,Sep 29,2010
Bhubaneswar, Sept 30 (PTI) Orissa government today decided to include at least a dozen more specifications to the Unique Identity (UID), christened as "Aadhaar", a national project launched to document profile of every individual in the country. 

This was decided at a high level meeting attended by chief secretary, director census, Orissa and other officials. While UID would have details of an individual like his or her name, sex and other datas, the state government has decided to include information like card holders ration card number, BPL/APL number, NREGS data, Driving License number, PAN number, photo i-card number, passport number, kissan and credit card number, LPG consumer number, Rastriya Swasthya Vikas Yojana number, pension I-d number and pass book number. 

As the Central government is undertaking a big exercise to prepare UID, it would be appropriate to add some more data regarding a person, said chief secretary B K Patnaik adding that six important places in the state were identified to execute the gigantic work. Stating that the work for the bio-metric data collection for preparation of UID would start in December from eight KBK (Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput) districts, he said demographic data capturing work had already been started by identifying as many as 95 lakh families. The people of Orissa could expect getting UID from May/June, 2011, an official said adding a sub-committee had been formed under the chairmanship of additional development commissioner (ADC) where secretaries of housing and urban development, IT, labour and employment and civil supplies and consumer welfare department, were members.The director of census will negotiate between the state government and the Centre.

627 - Inside India's first 'Unique Identity' village -BBC News South Asia

By Prachi Pinglay
BBC News, Tembhli, Maharashtra

 Villagers were left a little perplexed by the arrival
of dignitaries and accompanying press pack

There has been a hive of activity over the last few days in the remote village of Tembhli in India's western state of Maharashtra.

That is because the village, in the tribal district of Nandurbar, is the first place in all of India to launch the country's unique identification (UID) programme.

Arman Qureshi, who was one of the first 10 recipients of UID cards, showed his off proudly to journalists and bemused villagers.

Using the latest biometric technology including an iris scan, over the next five years the cards will log details of India's population of more than one billion people on a central database.

Traditional and modern
 
The idea behind the multi-million dollar scheme is to provide better security, fairer distribution of food handouts and more equal employment opportunities.

In the village of Tembhli - 400km (248 miles) north of Mumbai - it was perhaps a classic example of traditional India meeting its modern counterpart.

The latest technological advances in personal identification were a little lost on the villagers, many of whom had never heard of UIDs and were a little perplexed to discover a media circus on their doorsteps.

But there was no doubting that people in this Congress party stronghold were excited about seeing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The occasion was marked by newly constructed roads and an array of posters and banners displaying the UID symbol, which was also painted on numerous mud houses.

"Yes, yes, I shook hands with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," said Arman Qureshi.

"We were told that with the card everything will be easier.

"I'm not literate so if I just show my fingerprints I will be able to access bank accounts anywhere in India."

However, his enthusiasm and knowledge is not necessarily shared by other residents of this village - where many in the population of about 1,500 people live below the poverty line.

Jijabai Thakre's house is next to the enclosure set up for the visit of the national leadership.

Nervous
 
As she sits outside her house watching the activity, she has some serious questions.
This must not lead to a scaling down of efforts
to provide adequate affordable food”
Kailash Manatre, Tembhli villager

"We don't know how this works. Will we get jobs? Most of us are landless labourers and have to work away from home."

Most of the residents work in the neighbouring state of Gujarat during the four to six months of the farming season.

They have a common query - does this get us more food grain at lower costs?

Anil Thakre, a 12-year-old schoolboy who was also one of the first 10 to receive cards, appeared nervous as the media gathered around him to ask about his meeting with the prime minister and the benefits of the UID cards.

"It will help us," he confidently proclaimed, "and I can open an account."

Officials say that UID cards will reduce overlapping documentation when processing voters' cards, ration cards and below-poverty-line cards.

They say that people who do not have these cards will not be left out of welfare schemes once they have UID cards.

However, it does not guarantee jobs or loans, which the villagers are far more interested in.

And to make matters more complicated for them, it has emerged that some of the information on their UID cards may be inaccurate.

Tembhli is a Congress party stronghold



Kailash Manatre sums up the fears of many.

"We used to hold a BPL card which allowed us to buy food grain at a cheaper rate," he says.

"But my brother received a different card when he got married. So what information will appear on his UID card? And will we not get previous benefits? This must not lead to a scaling down of efforts to provide adequate affordable food."

As Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh entered the village there were loud cheers as people craned their necks to get a glimpse of Soniaji.

Disappointed
In this Congress stronghold there is love and support for the Gandhi family.

 The government says better ID will mean
benefits are delivered more fairly

"We want to see her and we want to see Rahul Gandhi," is a common refrain.

Aravind Sonawane, a 20-year-old man, stood up and spoke to Ms Gandhi. He told her that the new roads built nearby the village had been constructed because of her.

"But soon they will forget about us. So we should be able to find work in our village. She heard me out and said 'OK'," he said.

Women who had gathered to see and speak to Sonia Gandhi were disappointed.

"We waited here for such a long time but the police did not allow us to speak to her. We wanted to tell her so many things - about our village and our life," villager Haseena Ansari said.

"We wanted to tell her that we were happy to see her but even that was not allowed. How will she know about our problems if we don't talk to her?"

After the dignitaries departed, villagers waited for their UID cards to be distributed.

More than 1,200 cards were handed out, making Tembhli the first UID-compliant village in India.

Soon after that, a dust storm tore through the village, removing many of the specially located posters.

With that the villagers had to return to their normal way of life - although this time they do so with a unique identity number in their hands.

626 - UID cards should be made for Indians only: BJP - IBN Politics

Press Trust Of India
Posted on Sep 29, 2010 at 19:04
New Delhi: BJP on Wednesday welcomed the Government move of giving the first ten Unique Identity Cards (UID) to tribals but warned that this identification should be granted with caution to prevent illegal immigrants from getting and using it for claiming citizenship.
 
"BJP welcomes the Government step of giving UID cards to tribals on Wednesday but wants to draw its attention to the fact that these should be made for Indians alone as Indian money is involved. It should also take precautions in border areas where illegal immigrants should not get it and claim citizenship," said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.
 
Ten adivasis from the tribal hamlet of Tembhli in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra today became the first to receive the Unique Identity cards from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.


The principal opposition has often raised the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh into India, especially in the states of Assam, West Bengal and the North-East.
 
It has in the past accused the Congress of being soft on illegal migration for "minority appeasement" and votebank politics, and further alleged that this was leading to changes in the demographic profile of state like Assam.
 
Hussain said the scheme of providing UID card is praise-worthy but it should not become a ground for vote-bank politics.
 
"BJP has for long maintained that there should be a check on illegal mmigration," the Lok Sabha MP said.

625 - Tembhali: A stark reminder of what we have forgotten- Rediff News

On the eve of PM Manmohan Singh's visit, rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore and Uttam Ghosh travel to Tembhali, a hamlet in Maharashtra's remote Northwest to have a look at the the first recipients of India's most ambitious social engineering project-UID (Aadhaar). The stark deprivation that they encountered has led them to pen this open letter.

Dear Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi,

The 1,500-odd adivasi-dominated villagers of Tembhali are agog on the eve of your visit as expected. Your cadres have left no stone unturned, in making you guys feel popular and tomorrow you will face a 2-lakh strong crowd if you believe one of your boastful former public representatives from Nandurbar.

The irony is very few of them and rediff.com did speak to quite a few -- know that you will be handing out unique identification numbers -- touted as one of India's most ambitious social engineering projects -- to 15-odd denizens of this village whose life will then never be the same again. The rest will come by post from Bengaluru, we are told.

The irony is these simpletons think that a man and a woman are coming to their village to protect them. They don't know who Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi are. The villagers still think about "haath ka panja (The hand -- the Congress election symbol) and Indira Gandhi". They don't know much about unique identity.

The irony is adivasis are being paraded by your partymen here, as a piece of museum art. The people of Tembhali have got electric connections installed at their homes in the last few days. They have had to wait for so long to avail of such basic facilities.
But to find them, you will have to visit small hamlets that are just a few metres away from the place from where you will explain the importance of unique identity cards and their benefits.

If you constrain yourself to where the organisers of Aadhaar in Tembhali (local Congress workers) want you to then you will perhaps miss our on these stark ironies.

If you too think that ironies are interesting and one can learn a great deal from them and improve the lot of India's teeming millions then do cross the 100-metre security barrier on Wednesday in any which direction you like and we can assure you will come across such ironies.

Because just 100 metres away from where you will connect with the people (they do hope to touch you), the concrete road ends. Just where this newly-laid concrete road ends, begin tales of lives of adivasis like 25-year-old contract worker Vansha Babu Teli, 55-year old Vasantibai Ram Pawar and 12-year-old, schoolboy Vishal Namdev Pawar, all Bhils, a Scheduled Tribe community.

While what you are going to read ahead are just three stories of Vansha, Vasantibai and Vishal, they represent what Tembhali and by extension India's teeming millions are going through. 
Vansha, a coy woman in her mid-20s walks seven km everyday (by everyday we mean whenever she gets work) at 8 am to Shahada, a prosperous town near Tembhali, from her mud-thatched dilapidated hut to work as a labourer. She lifts sand and cement bags and concrete waste on her strong shoulders from 9.30 in the morning till 6.15 pm for which the contractor pays her Rs 50 from which helps her feed her 10-member family that includes her parents, four sisters and three brothers.

The only good thing is one of her other sisters also earn the same sum, whenever there is work.

In the evening Vansha walks back -- she can't afford an autorickshaw, for it sets her back by Rs 5 -- after a backbreaking day, to her now dimly-lit home and eats chapattis made of bajra or corn along with chutney.

"The contractor makes us work in inhuman conditions and long hours," she says when asked if she has any complaints about the life she leads.

"Also, the fact that I don't get work everyday which leads to a few of us going hungry for a day or two," she quickly adds before we turn to Vasantibai Pawar.

Ask her if she has been registered with the local tehsil as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act worker and she feigns ignorance.

Here is the irony in Vansha's story: A 25-year able bodied wants to work for as many days in a week as possible (or at least 100 days in a year as promised by NREGA) but she doesn't find herself enrolled for either NREGA or Maharashtra Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

"The latter roughly translates to MAREGA (you will die)", says local activist Babu Naik, who has been working amongst the adivasis in Nandurbar.
A few days before it's time for most Indians to burn Ravana effigies across India on Dussehra, Vasantibai Ram Pawar and a majority of the adults in Tembhali village, begin their 300-km journey to Gujarat's Saurashtra region.

They stay in the open or if they are lucky then in pitched tents till Holi (the festival of colours celebrated sometime in March every year) gets over.

When the monsoon winds begin to blow from the Arabian Sea towards the hinterland sometime in late May they make the same journey back to Tembhali.

Here is the reason for this bi-annual ritual: They don't get any work for most of the eight months from October to May in Maharashtra. But in Saurashtra they can cut sugarcane, clear fields, work in the cotton and groundnut crushing factories where they earn Rs 100 per day.

Till about two years ago they would get only Rs 50 per day for their labours that is more tiresome and backbreaking then Vansha's.

Despite these hardships, they work in Saurashtra's scorching landscape because if they don't their young ones back home would go hungry. The only silver lining is when they get to Tembhali, they have a decent amount saved over eight months.

The monsoons in this green belt of Nadurbar-Shahada bring them no succour as the law of demand and supply catches up with them. More labourers mean lesser wages.

The local contractors take advantage of their illiteracy to cheat them of their wages.

"We don't understand too much about contracts. Whatever the contractor gives, we have to take it," says Vasantibai. When asked if the contractor uses force to shut them up she refuses to answer.

Dear leaders, we are sure you understand the economics of silence of the exploited.

"It then becomes difficult to eke out a living with our big families with less than Rs 50 a day that too once or twice a week," says an exasperated Vasantibai.

"Most of the days we survive on just tea, tamarind or tamarind leaves and ambada leaves, chutney and when days are not bad then either bajri or corn bhakri," chimes in Ambabai Thakur, another denizen of Tembhali.

The irony of  Vasantibai and her neighbours' fate is that they  aren't angered by their plight. They laugh it off. While civil libertarians worry about privacy issues, Vasantibai and many like her in Tembhali would want everybody to talk to them and tell the story of their lives for the world to know.

Their lives are like an open book.
As we engage a group of Bhil men and women, we notice a young kid walk up merrily, in an unkempt and untidy school uniform and stand next to the group under the shade of a huge neem tree.

"Vishal Namdev Pawar," he says coyly when asked his name. "Baada (12)," he says instead of 'Baara' (the correct pronunciation of number 12) about his age, when the group of women, including his mother, begin to giggle at his lisp.

Vishal, a class VII student, scores more than 80 per cent marks in mathematics, science, social science and Marathi, the language of instruction at the local tehsil school.

"Our dreams don't mean anything much to us ," Vishal speaks like a mature person when asked about his dreams and aims in life.

"It makes no difference if we dream or we don't," his mother Shamabai interrupts without any  trace of anguish or agony in her voice. "We know they will never be fulfilled."

With just Rs 50 per day of work, once or twice a week and the annual migration to Saurashtra by her husband, it's a straight choice between hunger or education for the Pawars

"Sometimes our school teacher drives my son out of his class if his uniform is dirty," says Shamabai adding that he has only one uniform which he washes after every three days and uses it again the next day.

So, what do you do at such times, you ask Vishal. He quietly covers his face with both his hands and cries.

The irony of Vishal's existence is that though he is poor and he dares to dream.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

624 - Sonia is my 'Aadhaar', says first UID recipient - The Times of India

 TEMBHLI (MAHARASHTRA): 

Number 782474317884. That will be Rajana Sonawane's Identity proof throughout her life and India's first Unique ID card recipient thanks UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the honour.

"I thank Soniaji for selecting me to be India's first Aadhaar card recipient," a beaming Rajana said after recieving the card at the UID rollout function today.

"Aadhaar card is the aadhar (support) of my life," Ranjana said. "Wherever I go, it will come in handy," she added.

"The card will be useful at the ration shop and for getting employment," Rajana said flaunting the card which has the slogan ''Aadhaar-common man's right''.

Among the card recipients were 4-year-old Hitesh Sonawane and eight-year-old Anil Thakre

623 - Nandan, numbers & national identity - Business Standard

T N Ninan / New Delhi September 29, 2010, 0:51 IST

If a billion numbers get issued, with real-time features and applications, Nilekani will have notched up a transformational project.



Nandan Nilekani sits in the enclosed patio, looking out on to an expansive lawn. The late September sun, suggesting the warmth of autumn rather than the heat of the Delhi summer, plays on a garden framed by two giant, identical trees. “It’s the only perk of the job,” the head of the Unique Identity project (christened Aadhaar) says, as he casts his eye over the pleasing scene.

nside, the house no longer looks standard PWD. A designer friend has transformed it for the former Infosys chief executive, at his cost. “I decided it was ok to splurge a little on myself,” he says, as he settles down to the conversation. The only drink offered before lunch is a glass of water.

It’s 14 months since Nilekani, now 55, decided to trade the life of a successful techie chieftain for official Delhi, a minefield for any interloper who dares to intrude. Between then and now, Nilekani has built a core team of less than 200 people, spent less than Rs 100 crore, and is ready to roll out what is the world’s most ambitious identity programme. The modest budget and the tight execution invite comparison with another project about to roll out in Delhi.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi will travel to remote Nandurbar (five hours by road from Aurangabad, if you travel like a commoner) to launch Aadhaar in a village where they will issue numbers real-time, and demonstrate banking inclusion at work. Are you nervous, I ask. Not at all, he says. “At most, I will fail.” But his manner does not suggest that possibility. As he talks, and talks, you realise there is carefully concealed excitement.

The roll-out will spread to seven states in a month or two, and by March-end several million numbers would have been issued. Firms like MindTree, Accenture, Cisco and others have been selected to develop the software, handle the biometrics, do the connectivity. A contact centre has been roped in, so has the post office. And a couple of hundred agencies are being empanelled to enroll on behalf of registrars, like state governments and banks. “We have also tapped into external capabilities by creating councils like an Awareness and Communications Strategy Advisory Council,” he says, and adds that he has received a lot of informal advice from folks like Raghuram Rajan in Chicago and Abhijit Banerjee and Sanjay Sarma at MIT.

Sitting at the centre of this network, which he says is instantly scalable through parallel processing, Nilekani is already thinking about his next steps. But a funny thing happened along the way. The Infosys star, who developed a successful software services business because the sector had no government interference, has developed enormous respect for India’s politicians. He recalls a two-and-a-half hour grilling by the parliamentary standing committee for finance. Chief ministers like Nitish Kumar have also made an impact. “These political leaders are on the ball, they work very hard, they ask the right questions, and they can see the possibilities. If you want agents of change, it’s the politicians.”

But how does he put together an effective project team within government recruitment rules and government salaries? With innovative flair, that’s how. He took the help of the National Institute of Smart Governance in Hyderabad (did you know that one existed?) to, among other things, recruit people from outside the government system, and then turned to his network of contacts. “I have got a brilliant IAS officer as our CEO and mission director, who has a deep understanding of technology.”

He lists four categories of people — volunteers, who come to work for free, people who have made their money internationally or here and want to contribute; interns from places like Delhi University and the Kennedy School at Harvard, who come for three-four months and presumably want the project on their CV; experienced people, who are on sabbatical from their companies, which continue to pay their salaries; and people from within the government system. “Since all I can promise is hard work, and no power or perks, the guys who offer themselves are people who want to make a difference.”

Although he has spent little money so far, the project will cost a few thousand crores—but cash is not a constraint. Vijay Kelkar’s Finance Commission has already allocated Rs 3,000 crore, and Pranab Mukherjee reacted to a report on budget cuts by publicly offering whatever money is needed. “I never even talked to him, he just issued a statement. And then he called me over to his office to reassure me.”

That kind of support has come in part because Nilekani has seen marketing as part of his job. He is good with words and with people, and he has been careful to keep all important people briefed. But selling to future partners has been the most important of all—since the project will make a difference only if the numbers are used.

And so, on Friday, he is meeting with the Reserve Bank and a dozen government-owned banks, to bring Aadhaar and banking together. Getting cash or transferring money on a mobile phone, using the Aadhaar number for identification. Paying a cab driver by transferring money from your phone to his… The possibilities seem endless as he lists them.

Then come the mobile phone companies, who issue some 15 million Sim cards every month. Half a million a day. They have to do identity checks on every customer, or pay a fine if something goes wrong. So, why not use the Aadhaar number as identification? It will save the phone companies a ton of money, and trouble, and they become allies. That’s Killer Application No 2.

There will be more, down the road. Like making the public distribution system work better. And the rural employment guarantee programme. And dovetailing with the National Population Register. Grocers will arm themselves before long with a “micro-ATM” that is being designed to do the basic tasks, and costs Rs 10,000 or thereabouts — so you can pay for groceries without using cash, by using the Aadhaar number.

Lunch is long over, and the conversation has drifted to other subjects. You think back to past projects that were transformational. Like the Green Revolution, ushered in by Normal Borlaug and MS Swaminathan, with C Subramanian’s help. Atomic energy in Bhabha’s days. Perhaps even the Planning Commission of the 1950s, when the world’s finest economists set up temporary home in Yojana Bhavan. If Nilekani gets it right, and a billion numbers get issued, with real-time features (and therefore applications) that no one else has, he will have notched up his own transformational project.

If a billion numbers get issued, with real-time features and applications, Nilekani will have notched up a transformational project.

Nandan NilekaniNandan Nilekani sits in the enclosed patio, looking out on to an expansive lawn. The late September sun, suggesting the warmth of autumn rather than the heat of the Delhi summer, plays on a garden framed by two giant, identical trees. “It’s the only perk of the job,” the head of the Unique Identity project (christened Aadhaar) says, as he casts his eye over the pleasing scene.
Inside, the house no longer looks standard PWD. A designer friend has transformed it for the former Infosys chief executive, at his cost. “I decided it was ok to splurge a little on myself,” he says, as he settles down to the conversation. The only drink offered before lunch is a glass of water.

It’s 14 months since Nilekani, now 55, decided to trade the life of a successful techie chieftain for official Delhi, a minefield for any interloper who dares to intrude. Between then and now, Nilekani has built a core team of less than 200 people, spent less than Rs 100 crore, and is ready to roll out what is the world’s most ambitious identity programme. The modest budget and the tight execution invite comparison with another project about to roll out in Delhi.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi will travel to remote Nandurbar (five hours by road from Aurangabad, if you travel like a commoner) to launch Aadhaar in a village where they will issue numbers real-time, and demonstrate banking inclusion at work. Are you nervous, I ask. Not at all, he says. “At most, I will fail.” But his manner does not suggest that possibility. As he talks, and talks, you realise there is carefully concealed excitement.

The roll-out will spread to seven states in a month or two, and by March-end several million numbers would have been issued. Firms like MindTree, Accenture, Cisco and others have been selected to develop the software, handle the biometrics, do the connectivity. A contact centre has been roped in, so has the post office. And a couple of hundred agencies are being empanelled to enroll on behalf of registrars, like state governments and banks. “We have also tapped into external capabilities by creating councils like an Awareness and Communications Strategy Advisory Council,” he says, and adds that he has received a lot of informal advice from folks like Raghuram Rajan in Chicago and Abhijit Banerjee and Sanjay Sarma at MIT.

Sitting at the centre of this network, which he says is instantly scalable through parallel processing, Nilekani is already thinking about his next steps. But a funny thing happened along the way. The Infosys star, who developed a successful software services business because the sector had no government interference, has developed enormous respect for India’s politicians. He recalls a two-and-a-half hour grilling by the parliamentary standing committee for finance. Chief ministers like Nitish Kumar have also made an impact. “These political leaders are on the ball, they work very hard, they ask the right questions, and they can see the possibilities. If you want agents of change, it’s the politicians.”

But how does he put together an effective project team within government recruitment rules and government salaries? With innovative flair, that’s how. He took the help of the National Institute of Smart Governance in Hyderabad (did you know that one existed?) to, among other things, recruit people from outside the government system, and then turned to his network of contacts. “I have got a brilliant IAS officer as our CEO and mission director, who has a deep understanding of technology.”

He lists four categories of people — volunteers, who come to work for free, people who have made their money internationally or here and want to contribute; interns from places like Delhi University and the Kennedy School at Harvard, who come for three-four months and presumably want the project on their CV; experienced people, who are on sabbatical from their companies, which continue to pay their salaries; and people from within the government system. “Since all I can promise is hard work, and no power or perks, the guys who offer themselves are people who want to make a difference.”

Although he has spent little money so far, the project will cost a few thousand crores—but cash is not a constraint. Vijay Kelkar’s Finance Commission has already allocated Rs 3,000 crore, and Pranab Mukherjee reacted to a report on budget cuts by publicly offering whatever money is needed. “I never even talked to him, he just issued a statement. And then he called me over to his office to reassure me.”

That kind of support has come in part because Nilekani has seen marketing as part of his job. He is good with words and with people, and he has been careful to keep all important people briefed. But selling to future partners has been the most important of all—since the project will make a difference only if the numbers are used.

And so, on Friday, he is meeting with the Reserve Bank and a dozen government-owned banks, to bring Aadhaar and banking together. Getting cash or transferring money on a mobile phone, using the Aadhaar number for identification. Paying a cab driver by transferring money from your phone to his… The possibilities seem endless as he lists them.

Then come the mobile phone companies, who issue some 15 million Sim cards every month. Half a million a day. They have to do identity checks on every customer, or pay a fine if something goes wrong. So, why not use the Aadhaar number as identification? It will save the phone companies a ton of money, and trouble, and they become allies. That’s Killer Application No 2.

There will be more, down the road. Like making the public distribution system work better. And the rural employment guarantee programme. And dovetailing with the National Population Register. Grocers will arm themselves before long with a “micro-ATM” that is being designed to do the basic tasks, and costs Rs 10,000 or thereabouts — so you can pay for groceries without using cash, by using the Aadhaar number.

Lunch is long over, and the conversation has drifted to other subjects. You think back to past projects that were transformational. Like the Green Revolution, ushered in by Normal Borlaug and MS Swaminathan, with C Subramanian’s help. Atomic energy in Bhabha’s days. Perhaps even the Planning Commission of the 1950s, when the world’s finest economists set up temporary home in Yojana Bhavan. If Nilekani gets it right, and a billion numbers get issued, with real-time features (and therefore applications) that no one else has, he will have notched up his own transformational project.

Bring Aadhaar and banking together. Get cash or transfer money on a mobile phone, using the Aadhaar number for identification. Pay a cab driver by transferring money from your phone to his

Mobile phone companies issue some 15 million Sim cards every month. Use the Aadhaar number as identification. Save the phone companies a ton of money, and trouble, and they become allies

Grocers will arm themselves with a ‘micro-ATM’ being designed to do the basic tasks, and costs Rs 10,000 — so you can pay for groceries without using cash, by using the Aadhaar number

There will be more apps down the road. Like making the public distribution system work better. And the rural employment guarantee programme. And dovetailing with the National Population Register