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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | UID project: Issues like privacy, denial of citisenship remain to be sorted out

UID project: Issues like privacy, denial of citisenship remain to be sorted out

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published Published on Jan 30, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 30, 2012
-The Economic Times
 
It is welcome that the political leadership has sorted out the turf battle between the Unique Identity Authority and the National Population Register and allowed the Unique Identity Authority to proceed with capturing biometric data and issuance of unique numbers for 40 crore more residents. 

The authority has already completed the work for 20 crore people. That leaves half the population to be covered. The NPR personnel and the Authority will work in separate geographies, so as to minimise overlap. 

In any case, the Authority has deployed software to ensure de-duplication, so that the same biometric data cannot be claimed by two different identities, whether captured by the same agency or by two different agencies. The Authority has also committed to undertake a thorough review of its procedures so as to cull the security concerns raised by the NPR. This is also welcome. 

Given the huge step-up in transparency of funds transfer the government can achieve by linking unique identity numbers with bank accounts for transferring subsidies and other payments to beneficiaries, the utility of completing the Unique Identity project at the earliest cannot be overstated. 

At the same time, what the government has not yet quite sorted out are concerns over privacy and denial of citizenship to legitimate Indians. 

Unless information linked to unique identity numbers is kept in separate silos, visibility across which is strictly prohibited except for national security reasons attested to by senior officials who can be held accountable for such attestation, these numbers pose a huge threat to citizens' right to privacy. Similarly, in this vast country with low levels of women giving birth in a hospital and weak institutional capacity to register deaths and births, establishing someone as a citizen is as difficult as ruling out someone as a citizen. 

In much of rural India, a ration card is obtained via patronage. A document of citizenship cannot be left to that fate. How to evolve and apply realistic criteria for determining citizenship remains open. The real issues with unique identity numbers and the national population register go far beyond turf battles. The point is to address these.


The Economic Times, 30 January, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/uid-project-issues-like-privacy-denial-of-citisenship-remain-to-be-sorted-out/articleshow/11679126.cms


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