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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A welfare test for Aadhaar -Subhashis Banerjee

A welfare test for Aadhaar -Subhashis Banerjee

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published Published on Nov 4, 2017   modified Modified on Nov 4, 2017
-The Indian Express

Exclusion and denial of benefits to the poor needs urgent attention

The news last month of the starvation death of an 11-year-old girl in the Simdega district in Jharkhand, allegedly because of denial of PDS ration due to Aadhaar linking problems, is appalling. The Aadhaar ecosystem definitely needs to pass a stringent welfare test much more crucially than the privacy test.

Aadhaar undeniably has potential, and can perhaps even be a “game changer”. But the way it has been used to design public policies, especially in welfare, seems to have caused havoc. The relentless push of Aadhaar without adequate justification or calibration, with complete disregard of the distress it may be causing to the poor and the under-privileged, is symptomatic of high-handed decision-making and technological muscle-flexing. It is rapidly setting an example of how not to do public policy interventions. Both the last UPA and the current NDA governments must share the blame for these faults of Aadhaar — UPA for its careless introduction, and NDA for pushing it so thoughtlessly.

Independent researchers and civil society activists have long been alerting us to the possibilities of such tragedies. There have been reports of widespread exclusion and disruption that Aadhaar may be causing in welfare schemes. While it is true these are based on anecdotal evidence, they do point to crucial problems with the Aadhaar deployment.

Irrespective of what may have been happening before Aadhaar was introduced, it is imperative to ensure that nobody who needs welfare is ever denied. After all, the rights derived from the NFSA and MGNREGA are unconditional.

The narrative from the government and the UIDAI in response to the reports of exclusion and disruption has often been callous. It has primarily been based on denial, on dubious savings claims, and on the lame quoting of the Aadhaar Act to say that nobody should be denied their entitlements because of Aadhaar.

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The Indian Express, 4 November, 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-welfare-test-for-aadhaar-upa-nda-aadhaar-card-4921582/


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