The government claims that Aadhaar removes barriers to benefits, cleans duplicate and fraudulent beneficiaries and ensures benefits reach the beneficiaries. Are these claims justified?
The purposes of Aadhaar were laid out in the Government’s
Strategy Document . Let us examine each of the purposes in turn. The Government asserts, “In India, an inability to prove identity is one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies.” More recently the
UIDAI admitted that 99.97% of those now issued with Aadhaar numbers did not really need them because they were already in possession of adequate identification documents. If this is true, the inability to prove identity has not been the biggest barrier to access benefits.
The Government’s Strategy document also states “A single, universal identity number will also be transformational in eliminating fraud and duplicate identities, since individuals will no longer be able to represent themselves differently to different agencies.” This has come to be referred to as de-duplication of government databases.
While placing such unabashed trust on the use of Aadhaar, the government forgets to mention that no official certifies the identity or even the address associated with the Aadhaar number. In fact the data associated with the number has never even been verified or audited. It is unclear how a number that is not an
identity card is a proof of identity, address, even existence or a basis to de-duplicate other databases!
The process of de-duplication does not require any new ID like the Aadhaar and certainly cannot be done with an un-certified, un-verified and un-audited database like the Aadhaar. In de-duplication, any two databases can be used for comparison with each other. The output of the comparison would be expected to be a list of records that matched and therefore deemed to be genuine, a list of records where the name matched but address did not and need verification, a list of records that are missing from one but present in the other and therefore deemed to have been excluded from one or likely to be fake in the other. The claim of de-duplication falls flat as we see no such lists, only exclusion of many amidst unverified claims of removal of fakes.
The Government’s Strategy document states, “It would enable the government to shift from indirect to direct benefits, and help verify whether the intended beneficiaries actually receive funds/ subsidies”. This means that as per the Government, to be deemed genuine, every bank account has to be linked to the Aadhaar and every transaction has to happen through the Aadhaar Based Payment System (ABPS) run by a private company, the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI). This implies that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s own know-your-customer (KYC) and its own payment systems like National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), in comparison to that of a private entity, the NPCI, facilitates fraud and cannot be used.
In implementation of this objective of direct benefit transfer (DBT), by using just a uncertified, unverified and unaudited number submitted remotely as e-KYC, the RBI did away with its own KYC standards, the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Basel Standards on keeping customer data and even the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Bank accounts opened solely with the Aadhaar number are indistinguishable and undetectable from hundreds of thousands or even millions of “mule” bank accounts to launder money, take bribes, park black money or siphon subsidy passed through DBT schemes. There is no existing mechanism to detect such fake accounts or trillions of fake money transfers effected through the ABPS.
The Government fails to explain how
94.7% of the villages without a bank branch or bank literacy will be served by DBT through Aadhaar. The deliberate policy of insistence on Aadhaar and DBT has created new barriers that exclude beneficiaries. Therefore the claim of ensuring benefits reach beneficiaries is also without merit.
The method of enrolment of Aadhaar has exposed every Aadhaar number ever generated to being copied, distributed, modified and stolen many times over. Transactions through such Aadhaar will be wrongfully attributed to the person whose identity was stolen to do such transactions. Aadhaar thus exposes the entire country to theft of lakhs of crores.
Hyderabad alone is reportedly getting 20 cases a day related to Aadhaar frauds. Aadhaar has exposed the identity of its residents to theft and misuse.
There is, therefore, no merit in arguing that Aadhaar removes the barriers to benefits, cleans duplicate and fraudulent beneficiaries and ensures benefits reach the beneficiaries. In fact, it does exactly the opposite. Technology should be an enabler, not a facilitator to build applications that serve as Trojan horses to compromise the fundamental rights of its citizens, the sovereignty of their decisions, national security, and thus enable the launching a cyberwar and in the process destroy law and order.
Aadhaar, therefore, not only serves no public interest, it actually destroys public interest.
(Dr Anupam Saraph is a Professor, Future Designer, former governance and IT advisor to Goa’s former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Global Agenda Councils of the World Economic Forum.)
some people are liking Aadhaar with the SSN in the US. Here is any eye opener for such believers...
How Social Security zombies are standing in the way of fraud prevention
http://bangordailynews.com/2015/09/25/th...
Americans are getting older and, according to Social Security records, some are getting really old. According to Social Security records, nearly 6.5 million Social Security Americans age 112 or older are still kicking.
Yet it’s doubtful so many Americans have reached such a ripe old age. As of Sept. 20, the Gerontology Research Group had confirmed only 44 people age 112 or older were living. Ten of them live in the U.S. The oldest confirmed Mainer, who died in 2008, was 110 years old.
The missing death information doesn’t just tip the age scales in Social Security Administration files. It represents a problem for many government agencies, as well as banks, insurance companies and other businesses that rely on Social Security death records to prevent possible identity theft and fraud.
It is possible that those who wanted to misuse aadhar, would have punched wrong retina scans and thumb impressions. Anything can be misused and aadhar was never a full proof system the way it is publicised.
If we look into the history, Chandrababu Naidu created IT revolution in Hyderabad and the word Cyberabad was coined but he lost the elections. Similarly, the pioneers of aadhar were rejected in Bengaluru elections. Thanks to SC that it is not made mandatory, otherwise even dead bodies would not have been cremated without this aadhar, the way it is being forced on Indians. And that would have been autocratic and draconian.
By the way, emails sent to aadhar were never replied and it speaks of a particular F5 culture and nothing else.
In a country like ours where illiteracy is rampant and the average citizen is already burdened with different cards for different purposes- voter ID card, PAN card, BPL card, the forceful linking of Aadhaar (which is issued to residents and not citizens) with subsidy or social benefits is only burdening the common citizen.
Most importantly, as Moneylife has been writing, the basic issue in India and its over billion citizens are not about subsidy, but it is about demand and supply gap. Citizens are being deprived their rightful benefits because the middleman-politicians-babu nexus is siphoning off the benefits before it reaches the end consumer. For example, citizens from a far away village will not receive foodgrains because of the nexus. And directly transferring subsidy money in to these people’s bank account (if they have one) is not going to ensure that the foodgrains reach the village. This is because if the foodgrains are siphoned off before reaching the village and public distribution (PDS) shop, then how and from where these poor people are going to buy it?
You do not find any possible merit in Aadhaar?
It may be more convincing if you point to its shortcomings and also suggest measures to overcome these.
@Mr Shetye... Moneylife has courage and that is why we are writing on the entire issues related with Aadhaar, the UID project.
In 2010, the new government in UK scraped its National ID (NID) project citing higher costs, impracticality and ungovernable breaches of privacy as reasons for cancellation of the entire project.
While announcing the abolition of NID in the UK, Theresa May had said, “This Bill is a first step of many that this government is taking to reduce the control of the state over decent, law-abiding people and hand power back to them. With swift Parliamentary approval, we aim to consign identity cards and the intrusive ID card scheme to history within 100 days."
Over eight years, the UK government spent around £250 million on developing the national ID programme. However, its abolition means the government will avoid spending another £800 million over a decade. The NID was launched in July 2002 and as of February 2010, its total costs rose to an estimate of £4.5 billion.
The cost of the UID (aadhaar) project may not be a hindrance for the Indian government, whose accounts are flush with money (!), but what about its impact on civil liberties? Will there be a comprehensive discussion on the subject?
They will ask for proof of identity for your "address" of residence and followed by original electricity. water bill etc.
In fact, the application form itself is incomplete. Anybody with all the "relevant" local Ids can get an Aadhaar card - but he/she may be a foreigner! Is there any question in the form that asks a simple question:
Are you a foreigner? If so, what
is nationality? All Overseas
Citizens of India (OCI) hold an
Indian ID of OCI; also called as
NRIs but can obtain Aadhaar card
on application.
In any case, why is the Aadhaar card not issued in colour?
As for comparing the Aadhaar Card to be "would be" distant cousin of the US Social Security, it will take decades before it can be done because of a lot of infrastructural work, mostly computer based systems, have to be in place before such a possibility can occur.
However, a start has been made, and this has to be improved upon.
In December 2012, Police in Mumbai have found an Aadhaar letter with an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, who had been residing in Gowandi area. This man used the Aadhaar letter for subscribing to several government schemes meant for poor Indian citizens. This also raises big question of for whom the direct cash transfer scheme is being aimed, is it the Indian citizen or residents or simply the voters.
There are lakhs of such people and we will come to know only if there is an audit of the entire Aadhaar scheme. Hope you can convince the UIDAI to do an audit, a forensic one of the scheme.
The Eminent author very unfortunately has only concentrated on criticism and no possible solutions to improve Aadhar and its utility. One of the advantages of Aadhar, e.g. is to ensure that the wages paid to MNREGA workers in villages will be directly credited to the Bank Accounts of the workers with the help of Aadhar Cards. This would avoid the rampant corruption when the wages are paid in cash through the bureucratic channels. Very interestingly the article does not say a word about what can be done to improve Aadhar or what is the alternative to Aadhar especially to the poor in the Villages.
MoneyLife should be also careful while publishing such totally negative articles. That is not the image of MoneyLife. Moneylife image is helping the people though helplines and other means.
Often, the best way to move forward is to bury or burn the dead. Aadhaar (as conceived by Nandan Nilekani) is a dead idea. RIP.
Pages on the need and reason for having biometric identity of every individual. In Today's world no country can afford to not to have such data for the economic and physical security of the nation and. It's citizens.Privacy issue is big false propoganda created by the opponents of udi.These people when they go abroad and if that country wants fingerprints before issuing visa they don't crib.when we want to open bank account or apply for movie phone or driving licence we give same info like photo,address proof,etc.Adhar contains same info only. The difference with adharone is sure of the persons is the same.In what way my privacy is affected.on the contrary for most of people much more information isavaible on the public domain through face book, internet.SO PLEASE RETHINK and do not oppose this scheme which is needed for building future of this country
There is no such thing called 'the system will immediately identify duplicates and remove them'. When any non-human system identifies a conflict of identities, either (a) the system should be programmed to accept or reject data from one database over another, or (b) a human being will have to resolve the conflict of identities.
As designed and implemented by Nandan Nilekani without adequate testing, verification or validation, how many false positives are expected to happen when fully implemented (using biometric micro ATM identifiers)? "A sea of false positives" is how David Moss describes. See http://goo.gl/eqnK3v
This is more of a wish, at best, a philosophy. As a professional manager, I've learnt to accept mistakes whenever the evidence is overwhelming, accept, apologize, cut losses and let the mistakes be part of my lifelong learning process. As a professional manager, I never live in a world of denial and magical solutions.
Incidentally, the much-touted UID program of Nandan Nilekani was not even his original idea. He copied from a disastrous experiment in UK aimed at tackling fraud, illegal immigration and identity theft. But the moment UK realized that the scheme was a failure, they didn't waste time to live in a state of denial. They axed the scheme and cut further losses. See http://goo.gl/tupMf2
A Professional manager studies the shortcomings, be they of the System or the People under or OVER him and finds solutions to make it work.
And in case of Aadhar, it is definitely possible. In fact the basics of Aadhar, Fingerprinting and Eye scan are followed even in India for Passport. Please ry to get a Passport without fingerprinting and Eye scan. If you refuse to be fingerprinted or refuse eye scanning you cannot get a passport even from any Agent or for that matter the Ministry issuing the Passport. Same applies for many VISAs. You will be sent back from the US Visa Center if you do not want to be finger printed or eye scanned. And at US immigration they check your Fingerprints and eye scans. This also you should try.
Your question as to how the eye scanning be done at Banks etc. for all transactions is ridiculous and not worth even touching.
Then you, or someone has talked about 90% people having two valid identities to open a Bank account. No one has specified what these are for obvious reasons. I am sure it must be a reference to Ration Card and Voters card. I guess you are aware that for illegal immigrants, like Bangladeshis, the easiest thing to get by paying money to the agents is Ration Card and Voter Card.
And you talk about Aadhar card being useless.