AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 7439 - Aadhaar for baby orphans

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, February 26, 2015

7439 - Aadhaar for baby orphans - Telegraph India

Aadhaar for baby orphans

Ananya Sengupta

New Delhi, Feb. 21: Infants in orphanages will be given Aadhaar cards to check illegal adoptions and help the government monitor the children, prone to abuse at the shelters or to delinquency later.

These cards, which will be linked to the Aadhaar numbers of the orphanage superintendents, will also give the children a chance to trace their roots in future.

"The idea is to give the child an identity," said Deepak Sandhu, chairperson of the Child Adoption Resource Agency (Cara), the nodal government body that facilitates adoptions by mediating between orphanages and interested couples.

She said the cards would also allow the children to "open their own bank accounts without trouble at a later stage" and secure welfare in an era of direct cash transfers.

"Besides, since their biometric details will remain in the records, the children can be traced and even supervised, if necessary," Sandhu added.

Very few children have been issued with Aadhaar cards till now because their biometrics, especially those of kids under five, keep changing a lot.

Under the Unique Identification Authority of India's rules, a child aged above one year can apply for a temporary card, which eschews the child's biometric data and instead refers to the Aadhaar cards of its parents or guardians.

After the child turns five, its biometric data are collected and linked to its Aadhaar card. At 15 years, the biometric data are taken afresh and a permanent Aadhaar card is issued.

Two pairs of female twins at Punjab's Panjola village, aged 10 months and about one year respectively, became India's youngest Aadhaar card holders in May 2013 as part of a special government drive.

This was done to promote the Dhanalakshmi scheme, which aids girls' education, in Fatehgarh Sahib, the district with the worst child sex ratio in the country. The cards will allow the twins to secure the cash transfers when they start going to school.

Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi yesterday accused adoption homes (orphanages) of falsely claiming they didn't have adoptable children.

Orphanages may do so out of lethargy --- so they can avoid the cumbersome adoption process --- or to "sell" the children into illegal adoption.

Maneka slammed the agencies for "lying" and "cheating" and said the worst performing among them would be shut down immediately.

"I'm appalled by all of you," the minister told orphanage representatives from across the nation at a meeting here. "I've found bottlenecks, idleness, unconcern, deliberate lying.... In the process you have destroyed thousands of lives."

She said that many couples were opting for illegal adoption because the legal agencies "trouble them a lot".

An effort began last year to enrol India's street children too in the Aadhaar programme to allow them, in principle, to obtain school admission, open bank accounts and secure government welfare.

Most street children live with their parents --- mostly migrant labourers staying in makeshift roadside or construction site camps. But some have no guardians and live on railway platforms or near tracks.

For the latter group, NGOs and government child welfare committees are being drafted so they can "introduce" the children for Aadhaar enrolment and, if necessary, obtain affidavits from gazetted officers that will serve as address and identity proof.