Confused by the legal tussle over India’s national identification program? Wondering whether you need an ID number? Here’s a quick guide to Aadhaar.
By Vibhuti Agarwal
A man worked on a computer during registration for Aadhaar cards in Amritsar, Punjab, May 24, 2011. Narinder Nanu/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
So why bother?
India’s government is looking for ways to make its large welfare programs more targeted ahead of national polls due by May and making ID cards mandatory for the receipt of some services is one way it wants to do this.
The government asked the Supreme Court to reverse its September decision that ID numbers should not be required to access benefits and subsidies in the government’s 29 welfare programs. On Tuesday the court said its September ruling would stand until it hears the case again on Oct. 22.
Previous attempts by the government to make it a legal requirement to have a unique ID number have come unstuck. A Parliamentary standing committee rejected the proposal, citing concerns about the security of the data, issuance of numbers of non-citizens and identity theft, among other issues.
Is the government going to keep trying to make it necessary to have an ID to access some services?
Yes. Also on Tuesday, the Cabinet cleared a bill, which gives legal and legislative backing to the ID program and allows service providers including government agencies to make an ID number mandatory for accessing particular services. A previous version of the bill was introduced in the upper house of Parliament in Dec. 2010.
The bill, which is an amendment of a previous version introduced in Parliament in Dec. 2010, must be passed by lawmakers and will likely come up for discussion during the winter session of Parliament, which is expected to begin next month.
If passed, then residents wishing to marry or access government benefits would need an ID number only if the service provider involved requires it.
How many people have a number?
The UIDAI, which began the program in 2010, hopes to have issued 600 million numbers by March 2014.
Around 449,203,772 people have been issued with a number to date, a spokesman for UIDAI said.
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