In six months’ time 1.2 billion Indians will no longer be known by names but by a unique identity (UID) number assigned to each of them.
The Congress led coalition government of Dr. Manmohan Singh is determined to see this multibillion dollars project conceived by a renowned Indian information technology czar, through by June next year at all cost even if it means stripping an individual of his or her identity and transforming the person into nothing more than an information assimilated into a computerized system.
This biometric identification process was originally introduced in the country to facilitate delivery of services and subsidies to India’s 200 million poorest of the poor. Rahul Gandhi, Congress’ projected prime ministerial candidate for the upcoming 2014 parliamentary election is upbeat about the fact that this one program, seen as a pillar for streamlining direct cash transfer in India has the potential to bring profit to his political outfit presently mired in a heap of controversy and corruption.
But can this mechanism alter his party’s sagging fortune is a million dollar question. Critics argue that the UID program is a discreet government attempt to funnel huge public funds as subsidies into India’s information and technology sector reeling under global financial meltdown. And the ruling administration indeed has no credible alibi for doubling Unique Identification Authority of India’s budget and expanding its scope without legal authorization of the Indian Parliament. The lawmakers have so far steadfastly refused to provide statutory mandate to this system citing various discrepancies. But the issue has a far deeper ramification on the Indian society as a whole.
This projected “game changer” will actually tear apart the country’s traditional societal features, social characteristics and fabric, its ethos and above all the very values on which this civilization prospered for centuries.
Unfortunately, some high and mighty in India’s political circle invested with intellectual arrogance are determined to package the UID scheme as a panacea for all the evils that are plaguing the Indian system despite the stink that has already started emanating from this mind-boggling monetary bonanza from the government.
Selected multinational companies specializing in computer applications and consultancy are rejoicing over this gift, in the form of a boost to their short-term balance sheet from a party’s regime which has appropriated the cause of subaltern class with great fanfare. In the absence of a properly evaluated cost benefit analysis this entire paraphernalia is turning out to be a white elephant.
It seems that the country is yet to ascertain the consequences of carrying on with this supposedly magic bullet. Can anybody even imagine the price of inclusion? Verification would entail installation of biometric scanners in every ration shop, branches of financial institutions, educational establishments, agencies distributing liquefied petroleum gas for domestic and commercial use, petrol pumps and others throughout India apart from the broadband infrastructure and bandwidth required to connect these places to a centralized database.
Transaction cost will jump manifold and the beneficiaries — common man and the underprivileged — at the end of the day will be compelled to sustain the infrastructural maintenance cost in the form of additional service tax.
Recruitment, training and hardware expenses associated with this mega project will beef up India’s growth story and add to the GDP numbers, has been the standard counterpoint so far. But then, is it a reason justified enough to burden the country with utopian targets and an expensive technique?
The UID scheme despite all the bragging does not address the basic issue, that of arresting pilferage of funds prior to the point of sale and thereafter. So what prevented the government from universalizing a digitized passport scheme that could have been the fulcrum of cash transfer if identity verification was the sole criteria?
Psychologically, it would have bolstered and embodied the sense of belonging among citizenry to their homeland especially when a sizable segment is alienated from the state. Beyond the popular concern over security, privacy, health safety and technical vulnerability of the system employed; the government has also astutely concealed that biometric is not a process involving a single enrollment for life due to iris template aging effect.
The establishment is also lackadaisical about the susceptibility of Indian spies working abroad undercover, thanks to the veiled format of mandatory registration. To sum up, the biometric scheme is destined to be Congress’ Waterloo though it has brought smile to former US Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, adviser to Safran Group, the primary UID contractor.
— The author is a Kolkata-based journalist and columnist.
