Why is the opposition to the UID scheme growing? The unique identity (UID) numbers being issued with much fanfare have no legal sanctity. This may surprise many who casually know about the UID scheme and believe it represents a progressive and transparent new India. The problem is, the Bill which proposes setting up an Authority mandated to issue such numbers was introduced in Parliament only in December 2010. This is yet to...
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Resolving the identity crisis by Malia Politzer
When a group of 46 cooks in northern Gujarat—some of whom had been working for up to seven years—demanded full payment for their labour, they were threatened, beaten, then finally thrown out with little more than the clothes they were wearing. The group—which included women and children—were all migrants from a tribal region in southern Rajasthan. They walked for three days without food to get to the nearest train station,...
More »100 days on, development a non-starter in UID’s first stop by Santosh Andhale
Nearly 100 days after the nondescript Tembhali in Nandurbar district was swamped with promises of development, nothing has changed for the better in the tribal village. For over a week in September, the tribal village basked in public and official attention. Prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi landed to launch the ambitious Unique Identity (UID) card — Aadhaar — project amid great fanfare. Great promises to improve the...
More »UID can now be your official ID proof by Arunoday Mukharji
Kartik Burman, 46, is a rag picker from Bengal, living near Nizamuddin in Delhi for the past 10 years. He is being enrolled for the Unique Identification Project or the UID. So when he goes out to demand a job under NREGA or get a ration card he won't have a problem. The likes of this old rag picker too are hoping for a better deal in life. Mukhtar Ahmed, homeless, says,...
More »Unique Identity, Leakages and Development by Jayati Ghosh
For some reason, governments - as well as the development ''industry'' as a whole - have always had a tendency to look for universal panaceas, particular silver bullets that will solve all or most of their implementation problems and somehow achieve the development project for them. The latest such initiative bullet that seems to have been accepted as a silver bullet is the Unique Identification Project, which is now seen...
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