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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Aadhaar is fine to stop some kinds of leakage and corruption. But it is no panacea. -Maitreesh Ghatak

Aadhaar is fine to stop some kinds of leakage and corruption. But it is no panacea. -Maitreesh Ghatak

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published Published on Jan 24, 2018   modified Modified on Jan 24, 2018
-The Economic Times

The art of good governance is through trial and error, figuring out what works where and how, and scaling up from below. Only then can one have a solid foundation.

Aadhaar literally means something that holds (dhaaran: to hold). The word is interpreted either as a foundation or base (such as, to a building), or a container (such as, of water), even though given that it is an identity-verifying system, a door or gateway would have been a more appropriate word to describe it.

Moreover, the recent controversies surrounding it seem to conflict with both interpretations of the word, raising doubts as to whether the foundation is strong enough, or the container leakproof, given the data breach incident and the misuse of the Aadhaar number by a well-known mobile network provider.

But going beyond these logistical issues, unfortunate as they are, which can also occur in other contexts, there’s a more basic question: what exactly is unique about Aadhaar?

There are many methods of identification required in different contexts in India, such as the ration card, the Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, the voter card, the driver’s licence and passport. But these are only needed for a specific purpose: to draw supplies of food and kerosene from the public distribution system (PDS), to file for income taxes, to vote, to drive or to travel.

Compared to these, the only thing that seems unique about Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique identity number assigned to Indian residents that connects an individual to his or her address and demographic information — other than the fact that it’s based on a biometric identification system — is the forced and regimented fashion via which it is being operationalised.

This has reportedly led to some deaths of very poor citizens who were turned down from receiving food from the PDS for not having the Aadhaar card, or because of some technical glitches.

One can object to Aadhaar on principle, on grounds of privacy, or giving the State access to too much information about individuals. Yes, the digital era we live in, this is a danger that is out there even without Aadhaar. However, that is not a good argument in its favour. Aadhaar would then be yet another, more comprehensive and expansive domain in which these risks will arise.

On the Cards

One can also support it in principle but oppose it in practice, given the way it is being implemented and its potential abuse, given the nature of our administrative machinery and political and legal institutions.

There are many who do not object in principle to having a consolidated multipurpose ID used to minimise inclusion and exclusion errors that relate to various government welfare schemes due to corruption and inefficiency — namely, those who are not eligible receiving it and those who are eligible not receiving it.

However, many of them can still oppose it on grounds of the coercive manner in which the scheme is being implemented, and its reach being expanded to those who are not recipients of any GoI welfare scheme.

What is the argument for bringing individuals who are not drawing any government benefit in the first stage of implementing it? This stretches bureaucratic resources, and the resulting cost falls disproportionately on those who are the most vulnerable and voiceless.

What for others is merely an inconvenience, for them is an incredibly costly ordeal in terms of time, money, effort and forgone wages, given the remote areas they live in, the barriers they face in dealing with the bureaucracy, and their precarious existence on the margin of subsistence.

What is the need for the military-style rush in setting hard deadlines and punishing those who cannot meet them for no fault of theirs by refusing them rations essential for their survival? This is command-and-control style governance at its worst — ironic, that an administration that wants to dismantle the Nehruvian State-led model of development is leading the charge.

All this shows a callous and incompetent face of our State that no amount of chest-thumping about a brave new Digital India can erase. It has also brought back memories of the misguided demonetisation exercise, which in the end could not prevent all the pulled-out notes to be replaced from re-entering the system, and in the process inflicting significant hardship on citizens, and creating an avoidable recessionary shock.

If the potential benefits of Aadhaar were huge, then one could still make the case that all this pain and hardship will eventually pay off.

However, even studies that are broadly supportive, like the one on Andhra Pradesh, found that there was a 12.2% reduction of leakage of funds from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) schemes, and 2% reduction in the incidence of bribe demands for obtaining payments once biometric smart cards were used.

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The Economic Times, 23 January, 2018, https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate/aadhaar-is-fine-to-stop-some-kinds-of-leakage-and-corruption-but-it-is-no-panacea/62613104


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