AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10994 - Aadhaar fails MGNREGS test in Telangana

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

Saturday, April 8, 2017

10994 - Aadhaar fails MGNREGS test in Telangana - Live Mint

Last Modified: Fri, Apr 07 2017. 12 39 AM IST

Aadhaar fails MGNREGS test in Telangana

The Aadhaar biometric authentication failure rate in MGNREGS is as high as 36% in Telangana

Prerna Kapoor - Remya Nair - Elizabeth Roche

The main reason for the payment failure in the operation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was Aadhaar biometric mismatch, the data showed. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

New Delhi: The Aadhaar biometric authentication failure rate in the ambitious rural job guarantee scheme is as high as 36% in Telangana, data collated by the state government shows.

Telangana is the first state to release such detailed data about the failure rates of Aadhaar payments, but analysts fear that this could be reflective of a nationwide trend.

This comes at a time when the government is moving swiftly to link all social security schemes and government benefit programmes with Aadhaar in an effort to plug leakages and ensure that the government payments reach the intended beneficiary.

The main reason for the payment failure in the operation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was biometric mismatch, the data showed. Due to wear and tear of their fingers, rural labourers have failed the biometric authentication. And since iris scanners, largely because they are expensive, have not been deployed widely, workers have been denied wage payments due to them.

“I would say that this is due to human error in several blocks. The officials have been instructed to rectify the errors. This issue has been taken up with Telangana state officials as well as with other states and I am confident will be corrected soon,” said Aparajita Sarangi, joint secretary in the ministry of rural development in New Delhi.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar, declined comment.

However analysts were critical.

“This essentially shows that the Aadhaar technology is flawed specially when it comes to biometric mismatches. It is hurting the livelihood of the people. In case of ATMs, the failure rate is only 0.5%. But for Aadhaar authentication for MGNREGA wages and social security pensions, the failure rate is as high as 30%, which is completely unacceptable,” said Himanshu, associate professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

In 2016-17, the total provisional expenditure of both the centre and the states combined for MGNREGS was the highest at Rs58,056 crore. Out of the 101 million active workers under the MGNREGS, around 44 million workers are given payments through Aadhaar.

As per the official data put up on the Telengana government’s website, the authentication failure rate for Aadhaar-based transactions was at 36% for the period between January to till date; this was higher than the failure rate of 34% recorded in the October-December period last year.

In fact, the failure rates in the two districts of Adilabad and Wanarapathy was as high as 46% and 38% respectively in the period between 1 January and 6 April.

Himanshu pointed out that none of the developed countries are using this technology. “UK had similar technology model like that of Aadhaar, but they too have abandoned that completely,” he said.