The village has its first brush with technology as the PM and Sonia Gandhi launch UID
Chandrima Pal
Posted On Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 04:10:03 AM
In Tembhli Fifty something Vishwananth pointed towards the mid-day sky, his weather-beaten face creasing into a shy smile. "They will come from there," he said, as if talking about gods about to descend from the skies onto their dusty little village.
Chandrima Pal
Posted On Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 04:10:03 AM
In Tembhli Fifty something Vishwananth pointed towards the mid-day sky, his weather-beaten face creasing into a shy smile. "They will come from there," he said, as if talking about gods about to descend from the skies onto their dusty little village.
He fixes the gudi attached to a pole outside his hut to mark the beginning of what he thinks will be an auspicious phase for his family. "Who'll come?" you ask. "Mantri" he says, unable to give you any names. "How will things change when you get this Aadhar number?" He looks bemused, then says: "Ration-paani."
Some 1,400 people in the tiny village of Tembhli in the Nandurbar district of northern Maharashtra watched wide-eyed as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the Prime Minister and a team of his most trusted technocrats and a retinue of state ministers flew down for the big day.
This tribal village - part of a district till recently notorious for its high incidence of malnutrition and infant mortality - had its first brush with technology as ten people were awarded their 12-digit Unique Identity numbers.
First came electricity
To reach Tembhli, you have to get off the spiffy Mumbai-Agra highway and drive well into the heart of tribal country on dusty, bumpy dirt-tracks.
For more than a week, preparations have been on at a frenetic pace in this remote village. Besides the usual gimmicks of overnight roads, fresh coats of paint on the child welfare centre and schools, the village also received its first electricity connection a few days ago.
In fact, as you join the giggling women and girls while they queue up to be frisked by a woman security officer, you realise it is actually the cottage of an old woman, who sits welcoming all - neighbours and strangers - with a warm smile.
It’s a spotless mud-plastered room with a charpoy, a TV set and a brand new meter box that heralds the arrival of electricity into her life. And two cuddly lambs.
Some 1,400 people in the tiny village of Tembhli in the Nandurbar district of northern Maharashtra watched wide-eyed as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the Prime Minister and a team of his most trusted technocrats and a retinue of state ministers flew down for the big day.
This tribal village - part of a district till recently notorious for its high incidence of malnutrition and infant mortality - had its first brush with technology as ten people were awarded their 12-digit Unique Identity numbers.
First came electricity
To reach Tembhli, you have to get off the spiffy Mumbai-Agra highway and drive well into the heart of tribal country on dusty, bumpy dirt-tracks.
For more than a week, preparations have been on at a frenetic pace in this remote village. Besides the usual gimmicks of overnight roads, fresh coats of paint on the child welfare centre and schools, the village also received its first electricity connection a few days ago.
In fact, as you join the giggling women and girls while they queue up to be frisked by a woman security officer, you realise it is actually the cottage of an old woman, who sits welcoming all - neighbours and strangers - with a warm smile.
It’s a spotless mud-plastered room with a charpoy, a TV set and a brand new meter box that heralds the arrival of electricity into her life. And two cuddly lambs.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA president Sonia Gandhi
and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan at Tembhli
and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan at Tembhli
The metal detector beeps each time a pair of silver anklets hops through, scaring a little girl who begins wailing at the sight of the strange gadget. Meanwhile, outside, the police PA system issues a warning: “Mind your goats and hens,” they say. “The PM will be here soon.”
The village sarpanch, Chhabdibai, is well-tutored and dressed in a bright yellow saree. She works the media like a pro. To every question she has measured, rehearsed responses, enjoying her moment of fame. She poses with the PM - whose name she often forgets - and Sonia Gandhi, who she refers to as “the white lady”.
The villagers, among them a mother-son duo of Ranjana and Hitesh Sonawane who are the first to receive their cards, aren’t sure how the unique number will change their lives. But then neither do most people across the country.
How it works
“This is the first time in the world that technology as sophisticated as this has been used on such a scale,” the PM later told the sea of humanity gathered to watch the spectacle at a different venue.
To make things easier, interpreters accompanying the VIPs explained to those gathered: “The number will make it easier for you to get loans, medical benefits, education and healthcare.” The women smiled; that made sense. “It will help you lead a life of dignity,” assured the PM.
“The biggest challenge for us was to develop a system to actually avoid duplication of identity, assign a unique number to each and every individual in a population of more than a billion,” says Shrikanth Nadhamuni, Head of Technology, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India).
The erudite Nadhamuni and his band of boys are part of the team that developed the platform which will now have to be used for various applications: be it the NREGA or micro banking. “The biometric system is foolproof, as you cannot replicate a person’s fingerprint or iris scans,” he adds.
Simply put, the technology devised by Nandan Nilekani, chairman UID, and his team, will record every Indian’s fingerprint and scan his iris to assign a 12-digit number, which becomes his identity for life.
“One of the biggest problems and the reason why most well-intended government schemes have failed is because of middle men,” says a stake holder in the programme.
“With a unique identity number, you can add a weapon to your arsenal, by actually demanding what is rightfully yours,” explains T R Raghunandan, a hard hitting former IAS officer who quit on ethical and ideological grounds and now spearheads the ipaidabribe.com initiative. “And while not all intermediaries are bad, this will definitely mean they are put out of business,” he says, warning that several NGOs may also be affected by this.
The village sarpanch, Chhabdibai, is well-tutored and dressed in a bright yellow saree. She works the media like a pro. To every question she has measured, rehearsed responses, enjoying her moment of fame. She poses with the PM - whose name she often forgets - and Sonia Gandhi, who she refers to as “the white lady”.
The villagers, among them a mother-son duo of Ranjana and Hitesh Sonawane who are the first to receive their cards, aren’t sure how the unique number will change their lives. But then neither do most people across the country.
How it works
“This is the first time in the world that technology as sophisticated as this has been used on such a scale,” the PM later told the sea of humanity gathered to watch the spectacle at a different venue.
To make things easier, interpreters accompanying the VIPs explained to those gathered: “The number will make it easier for you to get loans, medical benefits, education and healthcare.” The women smiled; that made sense. “It will help you lead a life of dignity,” assured the PM.
“The biggest challenge for us was to develop a system to actually avoid duplication of identity, assign a unique number to each and every individual in a population of more than a billion,” says Shrikanth Nadhamuni, Head of Technology, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India).
The erudite Nadhamuni and his band of boys are part of the team that developed the platform which will now have to be used for various applications: be it the NREGA or micro banking. “The biometric system is foolproof, as you cannot replicate a person’s fingerprint or iris scans,” he adds.
Simply put, the technology devised by Nandan Nilekani, chairman UID, and his team, will record every Indian’s fingerprint and scan his iris to assign a 12-digit number, which becomes his identity for life.
“One of the biggest problems and the reason why most well-intended government schemes have failed is because of middle men,” says a stake holder in the programme.
“With a unique identity number, you can add a weapon to your arsenal, by actually demanding what is rightfully yours,” explains T R Raghunandan, a hard hitting former IAS officer who quit on ethical and ideological grounds and now spearheads the ipaidabribe.com initiative. “And while not all intermediaries are bad, this will definitely mean they are put out of business,” he says, warning that several NGOs may also be affected by this.
Two tribal women from Tembhli village in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar
district show their UIDs (left) and Ranjana Sonawane
and her son Hitesh, who were among the first to receive the IDs
district show their UIDs (left) and Ranjana Sonawane
and her son Hitesh, who were among the first to receive the IDs
Silencing detractors
Little wonder then that the UID programme has earned its share of detractors, with critics arguing that it could simply enable the State to play Big Brother, with the 12-digit number becoming a living record of every Indian’s life.
“Amendments will have to be made,” say constitutional experts, “And a proper and open statement issued by the Central Government should allay all fears of misuse and misinterpretation of how UID will work and ensure an individual’s basic rights are not violated.”
Raghunandan argues: “Those who are raising objections saying this is an invasion of privacy are the elite who have willingly given up their privacy. Can they live without their credit cards, passports, mobile phones?” he questions.
“Today if there is an emergency, the government can easily put lakhs of people behind bars, because they can track all their phone records and financial transactions, even without UID,” he explains. “Everything is a trade-off.”
“Those who object to UID do not really know about the hundreds of unclaimed bodies in our state hospital morgues,” he continues. “Imagine a poor migrant worker from Bihar who dies in Maharashtra… there is no way his family will get to know what happened to him. He just ends up as a tag in the morgue. This should change all that.”
As a participant in a child and mother nutrition programme in the region points out, “UID will help invisible India get a face. For years, decades they have remained accounted for, this will at least ensure they get what they deserve.”
This is a sentiment that the PM shares. “It is time you (backward and scheduled tribes) shared the benefits of progress this country has made,” he says.
Best at the last
Things, obviously, are not going to change overnight, and most villagers are treating all this with a healthy dose of cynicism. They have, after all, braved far too many storms to expect miracles. As Raghunandan points out, “Aadhar will give you an identity to begin with. Empowerment is a long tortuous process.”
“We cannot live in the 21st century without embracing technology,” urged Sonia Gandhi at the rally. As if on cue, thousands of them rushed to the makeshift helipad, climbing on top of trees, poles and also each other to catch a glimpse of the chopper.
That, they said, was the best part of the day.
How it will revolutionise banking
The first milestone Nilekani’s team hopes to achieve is revolutionising the banking system with the introduction of micro-banking or micro ATMs. “It is a simple hand held device,” says a member of the UID tech team, demonstrating a gadget which looks pretty much like a card machine in your neighbourhood kirana shop.
“All you need to do is put your finger on the slot and choose your transaction type.” This device will immediately remit money to even the remotest village, which does not have access to ATMs or internet.
“Imagine a labourer working in the deep south, with his wife waiting for the salary to reach her somewhere in a different part of the country. The micro ATM will ensure the money not only reaches the right person but also on time.
The room at Tembhli, where local women underwent a security check
“This will eliminate the need to set up branches or ATMs in villages and small towns, which may not be economically viable for the banks,” explains a volunteer enthusiastically.
The gadget will be made available for clusters of villages and will be operated by business correspondents (BCs as they are being called), or the traveling banker, employed by the banks themselves.
Banks are, in fact, keen to be a part of this revolution and Bank of India has already committed to opening accounts for all the people of Tembhli over the next few years.
“We have already employed 1,000 BCs and will employ 15,000 over the next two years,” says S K Jain, general manager, local head office, Bank of India, adding, “Given the number of villages in India, we will have one BC for a cluster of villages to start with.”
