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, November 18, 2010

850 - Micro Finance Institutions - Blood Sucking leeches

 
 
 
We have been hearing the term coercive repayment and this is what we have understood from our interaction with about 52 microfinance clients in the field in India, during the last 6 weeks. These items represent a compilation of what several clients (especially, those with multiple loans) and/or their families told us as we talked to them in various places in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa and West Bengal:

 Note: There are Video Clips/Recordings available of what clients said for the record

Client A: “The fact that fieldworkers/agents came day after day (for week after week) and pressured me to pay back is itself a sort of harassment and coercion. As I (and family) do not have serious livelihood means, we have to either borrow from another MFI (this would help consumption and also repayment for some time) or borrow from money lenders (at even 10% per month) to pay them and get them off our backs. The idea is WE HAVE TO SOMEHOW PAY THEM or they will not leave. When all options of borrowing run out, we either have to migrate or die. This is what is happening to other women and may happen to me someday soon”

Client B’s Husband: “My wife who committed suicide, had taken 8 loans and had to pay back 2 loans on Monday, 1 Tuesday, 1 Wednesday, 1 Thursday, 1 Friday, 1 Saturday (every fortnight one), and 1 once a month. There was no respite during the week and on Saturday, she felt happy that Sunday was the next day but that was short lived as we had to make payments from Monday again and the whole cycle continued…When one has to pay loan repayments on 6 days a week and people will not leave without collecting payments, it is downright harassment.”

Client C: “The collection agents/staff came and stayed put with us until we paid the installments and this built our pressure as they would be watching us, often passing snide remarks and insulting us. They would even ridicule our children and basically try to embarrass us – so much so that, we would even not hesitate to go to a money lender and get the installment amount as a loan at 5-10% rates of interest and send them off.”

Client D: “One MFI had the practice where by if the 1st staff did not return within a stipulated time of 2 hours, other staff will successively join him. Soon, by 10/11 AM, there could be 4/5 people sitting near our house and making all sorts of insulting remarks. They also publicly shamed us in the village. I once ran here and there and finally paid them off at 4.30 PM in the evening and I was traumatized at the end of it all. Now, I dread their coming every time…

Client E’s Husband: “Some collection agents were really rude-after my wife committed suicide.” They came and said, “If you cannot find means to repay, then you should send out your two beautiful daughters, and get them to earn money by other means (prostitution…) and then repay to us.” One of them even said, “If you cannot do that, send them to me and I will use them and pay off your installments. They are very beautiful and would be able to earn a lot. I wept as I heard this…”

Client F: Another client says she is unable to bear the harsh language of MFI staff and, as a result, was pressured to take loans from local money lenders @4% interest per month to pay back installments. She also claimed to have sold off her jewels to repay MFI loans as staff were abusing her, whenever they came to the village for collections.

Client G’s Husband: One client’s husband said that the staff said, “We do not care if your wife died. You better pay when we come back tomorrow”. The husband further said that, “I had to borrow at 12% to pay them the next day as otherwise, they had threatened to chain me to the Big Tree, outside of the village and make me a laughing stock”.     

Client H: Another client said, “The earlier support (SHG) groups have now become pressure groups that insult. So there is no respite and harassment is 24x7 as group leaders and other members live at the village itself and they obstruct participation in village activities if the loan installments have not been paid. You just cannot get away without paying as they have a lot of local influence and can do anything…” 

Client I: A client remarked that in the case of defaulting members, if the defaulter did not repay the loan over dues, the group leaders and MFI centre leader simply took over the defaulter’s assets into their possession and then, they repaid the loan amount by liquidating it.

Client J: A client said that, “once at the time of weekly repayment, there was a death in the neighbour’s house who was also a member and the collections agents told the bereaved family that unless she paid the last two overdue installments, they would not allow the body to be lifted or rites to be performed. Then, the client claimed that, she went to a money lender in a nearby bigger village and got an emergency loan at 7% and helped her neighbour pay back the installment”.

While the above is by no means a scientific study, it nonetheless provides some (initial) indication into the kinds of coercive mechanisms that could be used at the field level (not exhaustive) by some MFIs and it does converge with the findings of previous research into coercive repayment (APMAS and others). These have been compiled into key coercive recovery strategies that could be used by some MFIs and these are summarized below:

Strategy # 1 - Life/Work Obstruction: Field workers, agents, centre leaders and/or group leaders/members may hinder and obstruct the normal life and work of clients and/or their families and thereby, force them to repay, using several means (borrowing from money lenders, take over assets etc) that may not necessarily be in the clients’ interest and one which could cause undue hardship to them

Strategy # 2 - Threats: Collection agents/field workers could threaten the clients that they would resort to violence and/or physical abuse if money is not repaid; they may also carry the threat out, if money is not forthcoming from the clients;

Strategy # 3 – Verbal Abuse: Field workers/agents may (verbally) insult, abuse and/or intimidate the borrowers and their family members and get the repayment

Strategy # 4 - Following the Client and Pestering: Field workers/agents could continually follow the borrowers and their family members from place to place and pester them for payment and keep on embarrassing them, until the money is paid;

Strategy # 5 - Repossession and Sale of Property: Sometimes, the centre leaders and/or group leaders/other members may even take over property owned or used by clients and sell that and take the repayment

Strategy # 6 - Satyagraha Outside Clients House/Place of Work: Field workers/collection agents could sit outside the house or places of work (like fields/shops) for hours and hours and keep on harassing for payment and leave only after they get it

Strategy # 7 - Embarrassment Strategy: Field workers/collection agents may sometimes even talk to business customers and/or guests of the clients and embarrass clients and thereby get them to repay

Strategy # 8 - Physically Take Over Assets/Documents as Collateral: The centre leaders, group leaders and/or other members could forcibly remove assets/documents of the borrower (like ration card etc.,)  and not return it until the repayment is made by client

Strategy # 9 – Physical Intimidation: Field workers/collection agents may physically intimidate the clients and get local toughs to rough them up once or twice, so that repayment is forthcoming thereafter

Several questions arise from the above discussion and the RBI sub-committee would surely have to look into the (range of) mechanisms that have been and are being used by (some) MFIs to collect loans at the grass-roots.

A rigorous scientific study will have to be commissioned and undertaken by a neutral set of people and only that can reveal the real extent to which such coercive tactics and strategies are used by (some) MFIs on the ground...