AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9467 - How Aadhaar legislation will help plug leakages in welfare schemes like PDS

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, March 10, 2016

9467 - How Aadhaar legislation will help plug leakages in welfare schemes like PDS - Business Standard

How Aadhaar legislation will help plug leakages in welfare schemes like PDS

Since the entire process will happen online, there is a trail of who gets what. It makes the process of auditing easier

Mayank Mishra | New Delhi

March 9, 2016 Last Updated at 13:26 IST

No other project has suffered as much indifference as the one that seeks to provide portable identity to all residents of the country. Questions were raised, criticism poured in from various quarters and court cases followed. Yet, despite seven years of uncertain existence, the Unique Identification Authority of India is close to achieving a rare milestone of issuing unique identity number to one billion people.

Finally, there is going to be a much needed legislation in place to back its existence. With the passage of the legislation, which seems very likely now, the delivery of welfare schemes will get a facelift. Backed by a legislation, the government will have the option of using the Aadhaar platform to launch direct benefit transfer to intended beneficiaries for scores of welfare schemes.

What makes the Aadhaar platform suitable for direct benefit transfer? The platform has inbuilt mechanism to eliminate ghosts and duplicates. It does so by assigning a unique identity number to each resident. The identity remains unique because of the inclusion of biometrics like finger prints and iris. What is more, the platform offers benefits like portability to the beneficiaries. If I am in the list of beneficiaries of any of the government schemes, I will continue to get the benefits even if I change my place of residence.

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Since the entire process will happen online, there is a trail of who gets what. It makes the process of auditing easier. The Aadhaar platform can easily be aligned with government databases of welfare schemes.

The most unique feature of Aadhaar is that it facilitates authentication of any transaction. Here is how it can stop leakages in the public distribution system, for instance. The PDS system, as we all know, runs with the help of a large network of nearly 500,000 fair price shops. Despite being one of the oldest welfare schemes, there are reports of a large scale diversion of items meant for the poor.

ALSO READ: Aadhaar Bill to ensure privacy protection

In an Aadhaar-enabled system, each and every transaction can be authenticated. Suppose a beneficiary goes to a fair price shop to buy his monthly quota of ration. If the shop has a biometric authentication device connected to the entitlement database, every transaction at the shop will end up benefiting the intended beneficiaries. All that the beneficiary has to do is to authenticate whether he indeed is the intended beneficiary with the help of unique biometrics like finger prints or iris. Once the entire transaction moves to this platform, the leakages in the system will be a thing of the past.

The beauty of the biometric-based authentication system is that it is the individual who has to participate in the process, typically at the service delivery point, let us say the PDS system, to prove his identity. His presence and his consent is required to facilitate the transaction, empowering the beneficiaries in the entire welfare delivery mechanism. There is no way such a system can be manipulated to benefit anyone else other than the intended beneficiary.

Of course the process of moving over to an Aadhaar-enabled system may have its own set of complications. But they are not going to be insurmountable. Once there is a legislation in place and a consensus to switch over to a new system, all such implementation challenges can be tackled. After all, the country badly needs a better welfare delivery mechanism and Aadhaar platform offers a chance to do that.