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

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

8699 - Four-year-old transgenders? A unique identity indeed...

Four-year-old transgenders? A unique identity indeed...
By Kushala S, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Sep 15, 2015, 04.00 AM IST

Four-year-old transgenders? A unique identity indeed...

After this calamity, can we really rely on Aadhaar numbers Karnataka is touting?

* A four-year-old girl has been stamped a transgender.
* A boy born in 2006 in Haveri has been identified as transgender in his Aadhaar card (number XXX960).
* Yet another seven-year-old boy's gender in his Aadhaar card (XXX462) is a T, meaning transgender.
* A 15-year-old girl from Yellapura, Uttara Kannada, is also recognised as transgender in her Aadhaar card.

The term 'transgender' is defined to convey 'a person whose self-identity does not conform to conventional notions of male or female gender'. Since it's difficult to fathom a four-year-old grappling with issues of gender identity or a teen choosing option 'T', one wonders how the government arrived at such a conclusion. 

In fact, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has compiled the latest data of Aadhaar enrolments in the state, has tagged 406 children between the ages of four and 17 years as transgender. This includes six kids aged five years. Of the five crore-odd populace registered so far, 2,920 transgenders in various age brackets have been brought into the Aadhaar fold. However, the ludicrous botch-up in the ambitious scheme to assign every citizen of India a unique identity by way of a 12-digit Aadhaar number with a card containing details of the person raises questions on the credibility of the data.

Fingers are being pointed at data entry operators who have erroneously and callously entered 'T' instead of 'M' or 'F' options (Aadhaar application form has Male, Female and Transgender). Officials blame it on privatisation of enrolments, saying there is no accountability on the part of the vendors to whom work is outsourced. However, when contacted by BM, assistant director general of UIDAI, in-charge of Karnataka, Anjali Ellis Shankar was not aware of the issue. "Unless I see the data, I will not be able to comment. You can check with the technology centre from where the data is uploaded," she said.

So far, total Aadhaar numbers generated as per UIDAI in Karnataka is 5,05,52,602 vis-a-vis the 2011 census of 6,10,49,446, which means the coverage is 82.81%. This includes 2,920 transgenders. But going by the data available with Bangalore Mirror, the actual number of sexual minorities is now in doubt.

Experts' views would bear this out too. "Identifying a transgender in the 0 to 4 years age group is just impossible. Even the 5-17 years' category is not accurate,'' says sexual minority activist Akkai Padmashali. According to her, a child becomes aware of his/her gender conflict only by around 10 years. 

"I realised my feelings by the time I turned eight years and it took some more years for me to figure I am a girl in a boy's body. You face so much of conflict in your body about your gender which can only be clear by teenage years. 


"Only after 18 years, we allow them in our community. These kind of factual blunders in Aadhaar data send out a wrong signal about the community," added Padmashali, also the founder member of Ondede, an organisation that works for the uplift of sexual minorities and child rights.
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