AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 7321 - Govt plans census of unorganized sector workers

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

Saturday, February 7, 2015

7321 - Govt plans census of unorganized sector workers - Live Mint

Govt plans census of unorganized sector workers

The workers will be assigned a unique identity so as to give them social security benefits including health insurance and old age pension

Prashant K. Nanda

The government wants efforts to be made to enumerate unorganized sector workers so that their contribution can be quantified, and more of them get social security benefits.

Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

New Delhi: India is looking to undertake a census of workers in the so-called unorganized sector and assign them a unique identity so as to give them social security benefits including health insurance and old age pension. All information of such workers will be verified against Aadhaar (or Unique ID) numbers wherever available to reduce any duplicity, and those who don’t have Aadhaar will be provided one, according to two government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity and a labour ministry document. Almost 93% of India’s 475 million labour market work in the unorganized sector, according to government data. And the sector accounts for at least half of India’s gross domestic product, government data says.

The Unique Identification Authority of India or UIDAI, which issues the 12-digit unique Aadhaar number, has so far enrolled 753.4 million people in India. The unorganized sector is largely made up of proprietorships or partnerships, not usually incorporated, and which employ fewer than 10 people per establishment. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government believes that efforts must be made to enumerate unorganized sector workers so that their contribution can be quantified, and more of them get social security benefits such as employees provident fund, healthcare services, health insurance, and pension, said the first government official. The central government discussed the matter with state labour departments in January and has asked them to start work on a census. “Enumeration on the lines of Census will be done by States/UTs (union territories). The states shall devise the mechanism for the entire process of registration. Enumeration can be done by census staff/agencies at the same rate as conducted in Census for India. State Labour Department along with district administration will accordingly select the agency for enumeration,” said a ministry document detailing the minutes of the meeting of labour ministry officials with the state labour secretaries. Mint has reviewed a copy of the document.

According to the document, states will jointly work with the Employee Provident Fund Organization on registering workers in the unorganized sector to prevent duplication. After the census, the government will provide workers with an unorganized worker card. “Card fascia will have photo, name, the standardized card number along with other attributes as may be decided,” according to the document. For starters, card holders will be eligible for benefits of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY), the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY), and the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. The first two are insurance schemes. While RSBY provides cashless hospitalization for the poor, AABY provides life and disability protection to landless families. The old age pension scheme is for the senior citizens of poor families. The second government official said that since the central government is focused on direct benefits transfer (where benefits are directly sent to the bank account of the beneficiary), several other schemes including scholarships and food security can be incorporated in the unorganized worker card scheme soon. The central government will shoulder the cost of the enumeration, the document said. The second official added that the central government looks at labour reform and the welfare of unorganized sector workers as related issues, and believes that an exercise such as the one it has embarked on could hasten the movement of workers from the unorganized sector to the organized one. “After enumeration, authorities will be in a position to know the education (levels of workers) and may ask states to provide them required training for their migration to organized sector,” this person added. The census will also help the government track the proportion of people in the labour force, which has declined from 43% in 2004-05 to 39.5% in 2011-12, with a sharp drop in female participation rate from 29% to 22.5%, according to labour ministry estimates. Ram Kishore Tripathi, national secretary of trade union Hind Mazdoor Sabha, said labour ministers of successive governments have spoken about benefiting poor workers but most of their actions have been beneficial to industries. The NDA government is going ahead with a lot of so-called reforms but the poor worker isn’t benefiting from any, he added. Still, unions will welcome any move that benefits workers, Tripathy said.