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, December 7, 2017

12475 - Widow dies of starvation in Garhwa after both food ration and pension are denied to her due to Aadhaar-related problems

Widow dies of starvation in Garhwa after both food ration and pension are denied to her due to Aadhaar-related problems
A 64-year old widow, Premani Kunwar, died of hunger and exhaustion on 1 December in Danda Block of Garhwa district (Jharkhand). Contrary to some media reports, there was no money in Premani’s bank account when she died. Two months earlier, the Aadhaar-based payment system had redirected her pension money to a different account, without her knowledge. She was also denied her grain entitlement in August and November.
Premani Kunwar, a destitute widow who lives alone with her 13-year old son, used to receive her monthly pension of Rs 600 in her Aadhaar-linked bank account at the State Bank of India. From October onwards, however, her pension was redirected to another account (in the name of Shanti Devi, her husband’s first wife), unbeknown to her or her family or the local bank. The reason is that Shanti Devi’s account (a suspicious account - she died 25 years ago) was somehow linked with Premani’s Aadhaar number. Under the current system of Aadhaar-enabled pension payments, a person’s pension is automatically paid to whichever of his/her accounts was mostly recently seeded with Aadhaar. But most people in rural Jharkhand are unaware of this rule, which is a source of endless confusion for pensioner and NREGA workers who do not know where to look for their money. Premani’s death epitomises their hardships.
This is just one example of the objectionable banking practices associated with Aadhaar. Another example is the opening of Aadhaar-linked bank accounts (e.g. under Jan Dhan Yojana) without the consent or even knowledge of the concerned person. Sometimes bank accounts are opened in this casual manner by wholly unaccountable “business correspondents”.
In 2016, ICICI Bank opened accounts of around 6000 NREGA workers in Boram block of East Singhbhum district without their consent and linked them to their Aadhaar. Most of the workers did not know that their NREGA wages were being credited in the ICICI bank accounts.  Shell accounts have also been used to siphon off NREGA wages, as a recent investigation in Mahuadanr Block (Latehar district, Jharkhand) revealed.
Similarly, Aadhaar numbers are sometimes “seeded” into existing bank accounts without verification, or without the knowledge of the account holders. This is a dangerous practice that opens the door to fraud.
The practice of automatically redirecting pensions or NREGA wages to the “last Aadhaar-linked account”, without informing the recipients, is particularly objectionable. Recently, a massive scam of opening Airtel payment bank accounts linked to Aadhaar of mobile subscribers of Airtel without their consent has been unearthed. It was found that LPG subsidy and other online payments were redirected to the Airtel accounts without the consent and knowledge of subscribers.
It is even more shocking that someone’s pension can be redirected to a different account without informing her, as happened to Premani Kunwar with fatal consequences.

 Denial of food rations
Premani was also deprived of her food rations from the public distribution system in August and November. Premani had an Antyodaya card, which normally enabled her to buy her monthly quota of 35 kg of rice (minus a 2 kg cut) at Re 1/kg from the local ration shop. In September, Premani had to use most of her food ration to return what she had borrowed in August to survive. In November, the dealer took her fingerprint (biometric authentication is compulsory for food rations in Jharkhand, in the online system) but told her that he would give her rice later. Meanwhile, she died.
These irregularities are directly related to Aadhaar. The reason why there was no distribution in August is that local dealers were not allotted any rice for that month. Instead, they were told that they should distribute from the accumulated stocks that had been generated in preceding months due to transaction failures (e.g. due to lack of connectivity or biometric failures). Meanwhile, however, many dealers had sold these stocks in the market. So in August they simply told the cardholders that they had nothing to distribute.
In addition, dealers started tampering with digital records in order to hide accumulated stocks. One way they do this is to separate authentication and distribution – get people’s fingerprints, tell them that they would get rice later, and then play hide-and-seek. This seems to be what happened to Premani in November.

Circumstances of death
Deprived of both food and cash, Premani lived in a state of semi-starvation from August (if not before). Sometimes her son brought leftover rice from the midday meal at school, but there was little else to eat most of the time. Before she died, she had gone without proper food for 15 days. No food had been cooked in her house for eight days preceding her death.

Continuing denial by the government
Premani’s death adds to the growing evidence of violation of mere right to life of people in Jharkhand caused by the Central and state government’s drive to link delivery of welfare services with Aadhaar. Rather than acknowledging the massive violations caused by this policy, the state government has gone in an overdrive to deny that starvation is still a reality in Jharkhand.

A detailed report on Premani Kunwar’s death, prepared by a fact-finding team of the Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand, is attached. For further information, please contact Siraj Dutta (9939819763) or Sakina Dhorajiwala (9833419391).

आधार सम्बंधित समस्याओं के कारण राशन और पेंशन  से वंचित  गढ़वा में विधवा की भुखमरी से मौत
झारखंड के गढ़वा ज़िले के डंडा प्रखंड में 1 दिसम्बर को 64 वर्षीय विधवा प्रेमनी कुंवर की भुखमरी और थकावट से मौत हो गयी. कुछ मीडिया खबरों के विपरीत, जब प्रेमनी की मृत्यु हुई, तब उनके बैंक खाते में कुछ भी राशि नहीं थी. दो महीने पहले आधार-आधारित भुगतान प्रणाली ने प्रेमनी की जानकारी के बिना उनकी पेंशन  राशि अन्य खाते में भेज दी. साथ ही साथ प्रेमनी को अगस्त और नवम्बर में अपना राशन भी नहीं मिला.
प्रेमनी कुंवर, एक निराश्रित विधवा थीं जो अपने 13 वर्षीय बेटे के साथ रहती थी. प्रेमनी को 600 रु की मासिक पेंशन उनके आधार से जुड़े  स्टेट बैंक औफ़ इंडिया के खाते में मिलती थी. लेकिन अक्टूबर माह से उनकी पेंशन किसी अन्य खाते में (जो उनके पति की पहली पत्नी शांति देवी के नाम पर है) जमा हो गई, जिसकी जानकारी न तो उन्हें, उनके परिवार या स्थानीय बैंक को थी. ऐसा शांति देवी के खाते का प्रेमनी की आधार संख्या से लिंक हो जाने के कारण हुआ. यह भी सोचने की बात है कि पहली पत्नी शांति देवी की मृत्यु लगभग 25 वर्ष पहले ही हो गयी थी. आधार-आधारित पेंशन भुगतान की वर्तमान व्यवस्था में, पेंशनधारी की पेंशन स्वतः उनके उस बैंक खाते में जमा हो जाती है जो सबसे हाल में उनकी आधार संख्या के साथ लिंक किया गया हो. लेकिन झारखंड के अधिकांश ग्रामीण इस प्रणाली से अवगत नहीं है. यह वैसे पेंशनधारियों और नरेगा मज़दूरों के लिए, जिन्हें यह पता नहीं चल पाता  कि किस खाते में उनकी पेंशन/ मज़दूरी गयी है, एक गंभीर समस्या बन गई है. प्रेमनी की मृत्यु वैसे लोगों की कठिनाइयों को दर्शाती है.
यह आधार सम्बंधित आपत्तिजनक बैंकिंग प्रथाओं का मात्र एक उदहारण है. यह भी देखा गया है कि खाताधारी की सहमती या जानकारी के बिना ही उनका आधार-लिंक्ड बैंक खाता (उदाहरण के लिए जन धन योजना के अंतर्गत) खोला जाता है. कई बार बिलकुल गैर-ज़िम्मेदार “बिज़नस कौरेसपोंडेंट”  द्वारा इसी प्रकार से खाते खोले जाते हैं.
2016 में पूर्वी सिंगभूम के बोराम प्रखंड में 6000 नरेगा मज़दूरों का आधार-लिंक्ड बैंक खाता बिना उनकी जानकारी या सहमती के खोले गए थे जिसके कारण अधिकाँश मज़दूरों को यह पता  भी नहीं थी कि उनकी मज़दूरी ICICI के बैंक खाते में जा रही है. हाल ही में लातेहार ज़िले के महुआडाँर प्रखंड में हुई जांच में पता चला है कि किस प्रकार ऐसे फ़र्ज़ी बैंक खाते खोल कर नरेगा मज़दूरी का गबन होता है.
कई बार सत्यापन के बिना या खाताधारी की जानकारी के बिना ही आधार संख्या को बैंक खातों के साथ “सीड” किया जाता है. इससे फ़र्ज़ी निकासी करने की संभावनाएं बढ़ जाती है.
बिना पेंशनधारी या नरेगा मज़दूर को जानकारी दिए ही उनकी पेंशन/मज़दूरी को स्वतः आधार से सबसे हाल में  लिंक किए गए खाते में भेज देना अत्यंत आपत्तिजनक है. हाल में ही, इस बात का खुलासा हुआ कि कैसे एयरटेल मोबाइल सेवा प्रयोग करने वाले ग्राहकों की सहमती के बिना ही उनका एयरटेल पेमेंट बैंक खाता खोला जा रहा था. यह भी पता चला है कि LPG की सब्सिडी और अन्य ऑनलाइन भुगतान भी ग्राहकों की जानकारी के बिना इन एयरटेल खातों में भेजे जा रहे थे.
यह चौकानेवाली बात है कि पेंशनधारी को बिना सूचित किए  उनकी पेंशन किसी और बैंक खाते में भेजी  जा सकती है, जैसा प्रेमनी कुंवर के साथ हुआ जिनका परिणाम उनकी म्रत्यु है. 
राशन से वंचित
प्रेमनी को जन वितरण प्रणाली से अगस्त और नवम्बर महीनों का राशन भी नहीं मिला. प्रेमनी के पास अन्त्योदय कार्ड था जिससे वे आमतौर पर स्थानीय राशन की दुकान  से प्रति माह 1 रु प्रति किलो के दर से 35 किलो चावल (2 किलो कटौती करके) खरीद पाती थीं. प्रेमनी को सितम्बर में जो चावल मिला था, उनको उसका अधिकांश भाग अगस्त में  उधार लिए राशन को चुकाने में ही प्रयोग हो गया. नवम्बर में डीलर ने प्रेमनी से POS मशीन में उनके अंगूठे का निशान लगवाया (झारखंड में ऑनलाईन सिस्टम में जन वितरण प्रणाली से अनाज लेने के लिए आधार-आधारित बायोमेट्रिक प्रमाणीकरण अनिवार्य है), लेकिन  उन्हें बाद में राशन लेने के लिए कहा. इस बीच प्रेमनी की मृत्यु हो गयी.
ये सभी अनियमितताएं भी आधार से जुडी हैं. अगस्त में गाँव में राशन का वितरण नहीं हुआ था क्योंकि डीलरों को उस महीने अनाज आवंटित नहीं किया गया था. उनको यह बोला गया था कि पिछले महीनों में जो अनाज बचा था (उदाहरण के लिए इंटरनेट न होने या बायोमेट्रिक प्रमाणीकरण न होने के कारण कुछ कार्डधारियों द्वारा अनाज न ले पाना), उसको ही अगस्त में वितरण किया जाना है. लेकिन कई डीलरों ने बचे अनाज को बाज़ार में बेच दिया था. इसीलिए, अगस्त महीने में उन्होंने कार्डधारियों को सीधा बोल दिया कि वितरण करने के लिए उनके पास राशन नहीं है.
यह भी देखने को मिल रहा है कि डीलर बचे हुए अनाज के भण्डार  को छुपाने के लिए राशन के डिजिटल रिकॉर्ड्स में हेरा-फेरी करना शुरू कर दिए हैं. इसके लिए उन्होंने प्रमाणीकरण और वितरण की प्रक्रिया को अलग करना शुरू कर दिया है – POS मशीन में कार्डधारियों के अंगूठे का निशान ले लेना और उन्हें बोलना कि  अनाज बाद में मिलेगा, और फिर कभी राशन देना और कभी न देना. प्रेमनी के साथ भी नवम्बर में ऐसा ही कुछ हुआ था.
मृत्यु की परिस्थिति
भोजन और पैसे से वंचित प्रेमनी अगस्त (अगर न पहले से भी) से अर्द्ध-भुखमरी की स्थिति में जी रही थी. कभी-कभी उनका बेटा उनके लिए विद्यालय में मिलने वाले मध्याहन भोजन का कुछ भात ले आता था, लेकिन अक्सर इससे अधिक कुछ और खाने के लिए नहीं होता था. मरने के लगभग 15 दिनों पहले तक प्रेमनी को पर्याप्त भोजन नहीं मिला था. मृत्यु के पहले 8 दिनों तक उनके घर में कुछ भी खाना नहीं बना था.
सरकार द्वारा लगातार इंकार करना
प्रेमनी सामाजिक सुरक्षा कार्यक्रमों को आधार से जोड़ने की केंद्र व राज्य सरकारों की नीति से झारखंड में लोगों के जीने के अधिकार के हनन का एक और साक्ष्य बन गयी हैं. राज्य सरकार व्यापक स्तर पर इस नीति से हो रहे उलन्घनों को लगातार नज़रंदाज़ कर रही है और यह भी मानने को तैयार नहीं है कि भुखमरी अभी भी झारखंड की एक सच्चाई है.
प्रेमनी कुंवर की मृत्यु पर भोजन का अधिकार अभियान, झारखंड के एक तथ्यान्वेषण दल द्वारा बनाई गयी रिपोर्ट संलग्न है. अधिक जानकारी के लिए सिराज दत्ता (9939819763) या सकीना धोराजिवाला (9833419391) से संपर्क कर सकते हैं.


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