UID’s identity crisis

Nearly all who got Aadhaar numbers already had valid ID proofs

GN Bureau | June 3, 2015


#Aadhaar   #UID   #UIDAI   #RTI  

One of the justifications for Aadhaar, the unique identity project, was to provide an authorised identification to people who did not have any. In India, a vast number of people, it is believed, do not have any ID papers, and UID would give them one, even if it would add an extra paper for many who already had one (driving licence, passport, ration card, PAN card etc).

Indeed, according to the 2010 Strategy Overview (Click here) of the UIDAI, “an inability to prove identity is one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies”.

This, however, turns out to be a dubious justification for the humongous and costly project. Replying to an RTI query, the UIDAI has said that only 2.19 lakh Aadhaar numbers (out of 83.5 crore issued so far) have been issued through the ‘introducer’ system, that is, to people who did not have any ID papers at all. [The reply attached below] For the rest of 83.4 crore-plus people, Aadhaar was not needed, not at least for the identity purpose.

[The Aadhaar enrolment process requires an applicant to submit two valid IDs, or go through the “introducer system”. In this option, an applicant without ID can enrol for an Aadhaar number through an introducer who is authorised by the registrars for this purpose.]

The RTI application was filed in April 2015 by Ujjainee Sharma and Trishna Senapaty, and the reply from the deputy director and CPIO of UIDAI came the same month.

It seems the project started out with a faulty assumption. On the other hand, of course, a large number of the poor in India, living in difficult terrain or far-flung places, are without any identity documents. But then the RTI reply indicates that they are yet to be reached out, and “one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies” is yet to be dismantled. Either way, a debate is called for.

Comments

 

Other News

How health camps offer great learning opportunity for medical students

“They also serve who only stand and wait.” This phrase of poet John Milton sums up the essence of quiet service, those individuals, without any titles or acknowledgement, contributing to society. For medical students, serving in public health camps is just such a quiet and transformati

Is BharatNet digging too deep?

India’s ambition to become a digitally empowered society rests on the premise that every citizen, regardless of geography, should have access to reliable and affordable internet. At the heart of this mission is BharatNet, a flagship programme launched by the government of India to provide high-speed

WAVES Summit: A Global Media Powerhouse

In 2019, at the inauguration of National Museum of Indian Cinema, prime minister Narendra Modi had expressed his wish to have a forum of global repute similar to the World Economic Forum, Davos, for India’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry. That wish became reality with the WAVES Summit in

India’s silent lead crisis

Flint, Michigan, was a wake-up call. Lead contamination in water supplied to homes in that American city led to a catastrophic public health emergency in 2014, which is yet to be fully resolved. But India’s lead poisoning crisis is ten times worse- larger, quieter, and far most devastating. Nearly ha

‘Dial 100’: A tribute to the police force and its unsung heroes

Dial 100  By Kulpreet Yadav HarperCollins, 232 pages, Rs 299  A wife conspires with her ex-lover to mur

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter