March 21, 2016:
Last week, the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Lok Sabha. Earlier in the week, the Bill was returned by the Rajya Sabha with five key amendments, but these were turned down and the LS passed it as a Money Bill.
What is it?
The Aadhaar Bill plans to use the identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to deliver State subsidies directly into the hands (or actually, bank accounts) of beneficiaries. Aadhaar was first mooted as the Indian equivalent to the Social Security Number in the US.
Aadhaar isn’t compulsory yet. The Bill is careful in stating that every resident is ‘entitled’ to an Aadhaar number. But it also specifies that the government may ‘require’ an individual to enrol for Aadhaar to verify his identity for receiving a subsidy or government service.
Why is it important?
The government has been offering many kinds of subsidies and monetary payments to the economically weak. But as these payments trickle down from the Centre, via a long chain of intermediaries to the final beneficiary a lot of it is lost in corruption, leakages and bribes. The government is now keen to reduce these leakages by crediting subsidies directly into the bank accounts of the recipients through its JAM initiative (Jan Dhan bank account-Aadhar number-Mobile number).
JAM is expected to sharply reduce the Centre’s subsidy bill. For instance, there are about 17.8 crore LPG connections in India and the government subsidises 10 cylinders every year per family. In 2015, it rolled out an initiative asking the affluent to voluntarily give up their subsidies and commenced direct transfer of LPG subsidy into the bank accounts of households seeking it.
Why should I care?
The Aadhaar Bill directly affects you in two ways. One, with the government now having a right to ask you for Aadhaar, the ID may soon become essential for you to avail of any subsidy or services from the government. So if you have been putting off enrolment for Aadhaar, it may be time do it.
Two, there are concerns that once citizens share so much information with the government, including sensitive stuff such as fingerprints, these may be vulnerable to data theft or misuse by the authorities. A case on whether the implementation of Aadhaar number intrudes into the privacy of a person is currently pending in the Supreme Court.
The Aadhaar Bill has some safeguards in place to address privacy concerns. The UIDAI is not permitted to share information relating to any individual; be it personal details such as date of birth or biometrics, except for two circumstances mentioned in Section 33 of the Bill.
First, in the interest of ‘national security’, a joint secretary in the Central government may issue a directive to reveal your details. This decision will be reviewed by an oversight committee, comprising Cabinet Secretary, Secretaries of Legal Affairs and Electronics and IT and will be valid for six months.
Two, Courts may order that an individual’s biometric and demographic information be revealed.
The bottomline
Yes, there are data privacy and surveillance concerns. But there’s a bright side. Just a single Aadhaar can now stand in for the multiple sarkaari documents — ration card, PAN, bank statements- that you juggle with to get ID-ed.
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(This article was published on March 21, 2016
