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

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

13056 - SC Order on Aadhaar: A Blow to Welfare / सर्वोच्च न्यायालय का आदेश: सामाजिक और आर्थिक अधिकारों पर चोट

SC Order on Aadhaar: A Blow to Welfare / सर्वोच्च न्यायालय का आदेश: सामाजिक और आर्थिक अधिकारों पर चोट

13 March 2018 Supreme Court Order on Aadhaar: A Blow to Welfare

The Right to Food Campaign is deeply disappointed by the 13 March 2018 Supreme Court order which extends the deadline for Aadhaar linking of facilities such as bank accounts and SIM cards, but permits the continued imposition of Aadhaar on social services and entitlements such as the public distribution system (PDS), the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and social security pensions. This order perpetuates a long-standing double standard, whereby the hardships experienced by privileged classes due to Aadhaar being made mandatory are being addressed while much greater hardships endured by poor people are ignored.

From September 2017 to January 2018, at least ten persons across three states died of starvation due to reasons directly connected with Aadhaar. These persons were denied their legal entitlements to ration/pension either because their ration card was not linked with Aadhaar or because of failures in Aadhaar-based biometric authentication. 

In a recent public hearing in Delhi, more than 400 people from different districts and marginalised communities of the national capital testified about their inability to access their legal entitlements of rations and pensions due to mandatory linking of Aadhaar. Last year, in a similar public hearing in Bengaluru, people from across Karnataka shared the various problems they were facing in accessing social security entitlements, rations as well as health services.

In 2017, according to data put out by state food departments, in Rajasthan 33 lakh families were unable to access their Public Distribution System (PDS) ration entitlement each month due to the linkage of the PDS with Aadhaar. Similarly, in Jharkhand, 25 lakh families were deprived of their grain entitlements on a monthly basis. Even in areas (e.g., Ranchi District) where the integration had been in place for over a year, the rate of non-transacting households was high.

The damage caused by Aadhaar is not limited to the PDS. Recipients of social security payments, such as NREGA workers, social security pensioners and scholarship holders, are also suffering due to this application. Many such payments get credited in others’ accounts due to errors in Aadhaar seeding. People’s pensions have been stopped because their Aadhaar numbers are not seeded, or cannot be seeded; in some cases, old people whose biometrics do not match are also denied their entitlements (rations, pensions, etc). In one village in Badauli block, Sarguja District, Chhattisgarh 124 old people were not able to access their old age pensions as the village did not have network connectivity. Such denials of entitlements are in fact in violation of the right to life and must be penalised.

Despite some token safeguards being introduced recently in some of welfare schemes in response to Aadhaar-related starvation deaths and other tragedies, in practice Aadhaar linkage and (in some cases) even Aadhaar-based biometric authentication are still compulsory for a wide range of welfare schemes and basic entitlements. The exclusion problems created by this compulsion have been abundantly documented in a long series of media reports, statistical analyses, public hearings, testimonies, videos, tweets, and other records.
Aadhaar is unable to reduce “quantity fraud” – the most important form of leakage from welfare programmes. Also, many other reforms that predate the integration of welfare programmes with Aadhaar have succeeded to reduce corruption from these programmes. Nevertheless, the government persists in its obsessive imposition of Aadhaar on every possible scheme. Instead of acknowledging the very limited role of Aadhaar in improving welfare but the widespread damage caused by this integration, it fabricates and propagates its own evidence of alleged Aadhaar-enabled savings to defuse the opposition.

The Right to Food Campaign feels that by putting all the focus on Aadhaar, the government is distracting attention from the real reforms required in these programmes –increase in the quantum of support through greater allocation of resources, streamlining of delivery mechanisms and activating systems for transparency, accountability and grievance redress. For example, there is an urgent need to universalise the PDS, introduce pulses and oil in it, introduce eggs and other nutritious items in the midday meals and anganwadi programmes, increase in the rates of NREGA wages, social security pensions and maternity entitlements and timely payment of these transfers, and so on. We demand that all the notifications linking Aadhaar with welfare programmes (PDS, NREGA, social security pensions, midday meals, , anganwadi services, maternity entitlements etc) be immediately withdrawn.

For further information, please contact the Dipa Sinha (9650434777) or Kavita Srivastava (9351562965) – co-convenors of the Steering Committee of the Right to Food Campaign or write at rtfcindia@gmail.com.

14 मार्च 2018
सर्वोच्च न्यायालय का 13 मार्च 2018 का आदेश: सामाजिक और आर्थिक अधिकारों पर चोट
आधार मामले में सर्वोच्च न्यायालय के 13 मार्च 2018 के आदेश से रोज़ी-रोटी अधिकार अभियान अत्यंत निराश है. इस आदेश ने बैंकिंग और मोबाइल सुविधाओं को आधार से जोड़ने की समय सीमा को बढ़ाया है, लेकिन सामाजिक सुरक्षा सुविधाओं और जन कल्याणकारी योजनाओं जैसे जन वितरण प्रणाली, राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोज़गार गारंटी कानून (नरेगा) और सामाजिक सुरक्षा पेंशन में आधार की अनिवार्यता को जारी रखा है. इस आदेश से मध्यम व उच्च वर्ग को आधार की अनिवार्यता के कारण हो रही समस्याओं का निराकरण किया गया है. लेकिन वंचित और गरीब लोगों को, इनसे कहीं ज़्यादा हो रही कठिनाइयों को नज़रंदाज़ किया गया है.

सितम्बर 2017 से जनवरी 2018 तक तीन राज्यों में कम से दस लोगों की आधार के कारण भूख से मौत हुई है. इन लोगों को राशन कार्ड आधार से न जुड़े होने के कारण या आधार-आधारित बायोमेट्रिक सत्यापन में त्रुटियों के कारण उनके राशन-पेंशन के कानूनी अधिकार से वंचित किया गया था.

हाल में दिल्ली में आयोजित एक जन सुनवाई में विभिन्न ज़िलों और हाश्ये पर रहने वाले समुदायों से आए 400 से भी अधिक लोगों ने गवाही दी कि कैसे आधार के कारण वे राशन और पेंशन के अधिकारों से वंचित हो रहे हैं. पिछले साल, बेंगलुरु में भी ऐसी ही एक जन सुनवाई में, कर्नाटक के विभिन क्षेत्रों से आए लोगों ने आधार के कारण सामाजिक सुरक्षा सुविधाएं, राशन व स्वास्थ्य सुविधाएं में हो रही समस्याओं के बारे में बतलाया था.
2017 में विभिन राज्यों के खाद्य विभागों द्वारा दिए गए आंकड़ों के अनुसार राजस्थान की जन वितरण प्रणाली में आधार की अनिवार्यता के कारण 33 लाख परिवार अपने राशन से वंचित हो गए थें. उसी प्रकार झारखंड में 25 लाख परिवार अपने राशन से प्रत्येक महीने वंचित हो रहे थे. ऐसे क्षेत्रों में जहाँ जन वितरण प्रणाली को आधार से जोड़े हुए एक साल से भी ज्यादा हो गया (जैसे रांची ज़िला), वहाँ भी ऐसे अनेक परिवार है जो आधार-आधारित बायोमेट्रिक सत्यापन व्यवस्था के माध्यम से अपना राशन लेने में असमर्थ हैं.
आधार से हो रहा नुकसान केवल जन वितरण प्रणाली तक ही सिमित नही है. जिन लोगों को सामाजिक सुरक्षा भुगतान मिलते हैं – जैसे नरेगा मज़दूर, सामाजिक सुरक्षा पेंशनधारी और छात्रवृत्ति प्राप्तकर्ता भी आधार की अनिवार्यता से परेशान हैं. आधार से नहीं जुड़े होने के कारण कई लोगों की पेंशन बंद कर दी गई है. अनेक बुज़ुर्ग, जिनका बायोमेट्रिक मैच नहीं करता, अपने विभिन अधिकारों (जैसे राशन, पेंशन आदि) से वंचित हो रहे हैं. छत्तीसगढ़ के सरगुजा ज़िले के बदौली प्रखंड के एक गाँव में 124 बुज़ुर्ग अपनी पेंशन नहीं ले पा रहे थें क्योंकि उनके गाँव में इन्टरनेट कनेक्टिविटी नहीं थी. इन अधिकारों से वंचित होना जीने के अधिकार का उलंघन है और इसके लिए दोषी दण्डित होने चाहिए.

आधार से जुडी समस्याओं के कारण भुखमरी से हाल में हुई मौतों और अन्य हादसों के बाद जन कल्याणकारी योजनाओं में आधार की अनिवार्यता में कुछ नाम-मात्र राहत तो दी गयी है, लेकिन हकीकत में अभी भी अनेक जन कल्याणकारी योजनाओं व आवश्यक सुविधाओं को आधार से जोड़ने की अनिवार्यता बरक़रार है. कई योजनाओं में तो आधार-आधारित बायोमेट्रिक सत्यापन भी अनिवार्य है. इन अनिवार्यताओं के कारण लोगों के अधिकारों के व्यापक पैमाने पर हो रहे उलन्घनों का वृहद् स्तर पर विभिन्न प्रकार से दस्तावेजीकरण किया गया है – जैसे मीडिया रिपोर्ट, सांख्यिकीय विश्लेषण, जन सुनवाई, लोगों की गवाही, विडिओ, त्वीट्स आदि के माध्यम से. 

कल्याणकारी योजनाओं में चोरी का सबसे बड़ा स्त्रोत है लोगों को उनकी पात्रता से कम देना. परन्तु, आधार इस प्रकार की चोरी को कम करने में असमर्थ है. इन योजनाओं में आधार की अनिवार्यता के पहले ही कई परिवर्तन हुए हैं जिनसे चोरी कम हुई है. पर फिर भी सरकार हर योजना (जिसमें भी संभव हो) में आधार को अनिवार्य करने में लगी हुई है. सरकार इन सबूतों को स्वीकार कर समस्याओं का निराकरण करने के बजाए आधार से हो रही बचत के झूठे आंकड़ों का प्रचार कर रही है.

रोज़ी-रोटी अधिकार अभियान का यह मानना है कि सरकार आधार पर ज़ोर देकर इन कार्यक्रमों की मूल समस्याओं से ध्यान हटाने की कोशिश कर रही है. इन कार्यक्रमों में दी जाने वाली सेवाओं की मात्रा बढ़ाने की आवश्यकता है, सेवाओं की वितरण प्रणाली सुधारने की आवश्यकता है और पारदर्शिता, जवाबदेही व शिकायत निवारण की प्रक्रियाओं को सक्रीय करने की आवश्यकता है. उदहारण के लिए, जन वितरण प्रणाली का सर्वव्यापीकरण हो, उसमें दाल और खाद्य तेल जोड़ा जाए, मध्यान भोजन और आंगनवाड़ी में अंडे और अन्य पौष्टिक सामग्री दी जाए, नरेगा मज़दूरी, सामाजिक सुरक्षा पेंशन और मातृत्व लाभ की राशि बढ़ाई जाए और इनका समय पर भुगतान हो आदि. हम मांग करते हैं कि जन कल्याणकारी योजनाओं (नरेगा, जन वितरण प्रणाली, मध्यान भोजन आंगनवाड़ी सेवाएं, सामाजिक सुरक्षा पेंशन, मातृत्व लाभ आदि) को आधार से जोड़ने से सम्बंधित सभी अधिसूचनाओं को तुरंत वापस लिया जाए.


अधिक जानकारी के लिए दीपा सिन्हा (9650434777) या कविता श्रीवास्तव (9351562965) से संपर्क करें या rtfcindia@gmail.com पर लिखें.
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