AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8999 - Maharashtra government targets schools to complete 100% Aadhaar enrollment

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, October 29, 2015

8999 - Maharashtra government targets schools to complete 100% Aadhaar enrollment - DNA

Maharashtra government targets schools to complete 100% Aadhaar enrollment

Sunday, 25 October 2015 - 7:00am IST | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Dhaval Kulkarni

Maharashtra has a population of 11.23 crore, according to the 2011 census, and over 88% have already enrolled for Aadhaar, higher than the national tally of over 75%.

To meet its ambitious target for 100% Aadhaar enrollment by the year-end, the state government is formulating intervention strategies to register children in schools and anganwadis. Apart from identifying schools where the enrollment for the unique identity program is low, it is also planning to train anganwadi supervisors to enrol infants and universalise the Aadhaar card.

Maharashtra has a population of 11.23 crore, according to the 2011 census, and over 88% have already enrolled for Aadhaar, higher than the national tally of over 75%. However, around 1.40 crore population, largely those below the age of 18 years, is yet to enrol for the national unique identity number, thus necessitating the focussed interventions. In contrast, the coverage of people in the 18 years and above category is almost 97%.

Recently, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, director general, UIDAI, met senior state information technology (IT), women and child development department and education department officials in Mumbai to speed up the registration of children. "Our main focus will be on anganwadis and schools. The education department will identify schools where the enrolment is low," IT director M Shankarnarayanan told dna.

"We are considering using anganwadi supervisors to enrol children in the zero to five years age group… and build capacity in anganwadis like it has been done in Himachal Pradesh," he added, noting that however, these supervisors would have to be trained first.

This intervention strategy will largely take place in rural areas where mobility is a problem and inhibits access to Aadhaar enrolment centres, unlike urban pockets. The state government is also planning camps in areas with poor Aadhaar coverage. Around 77 lakh children below the age of five, and 68 lakh below the age of 18 are yet to be registered for the program.

Officials admit that they also need a mechanism to tackle new births and population inflow. Maharashtra already has 2,000 functional kits for permanent enrolment procured by the state government and placed on the ground in the citizen service centres, which are identified by the Maha e-Seva Kendra brand name.

Around six villages are covered by one such CSC, which offers government to citizen (G2C) and commercial services. To meet the registration targets, the state has decided to add 1,929 more machines, taking the total number to 3,929.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched an Android-based software to register children below the age of five and this will enable the deployment of tabs to enrol children below the age of five. These tabs will be used to photograph children and collect the fingerprints and the Aadhaar numbers of the parent for validation. The Maharashtra government plans to deploy around 500 such tabs.

The state government will also give inputs to district collectors about villages and blocks where the Aadhaar enrolment is low. This will enable the deployment of enrolment kits to ensure their optimum utilisation instead of using them at locations where the footfalls are less.

To ensure optimal use of these machines, the district collectors will evaluate the enrolment data, evaluate non-performing machines and ask the VLEs to pull up their socks. Officials admitted that ensuring 100% coverage by December-end would not be an easy task.

"The demand push is definitely there and initial reluctance among people has been overcome. However, infrastructure issues like power supply still persist," said an official.