When the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) started issuing 12-digit unique identification (UID) numbers – branded “Aadhaar”, meaning “foundation” – to 1.2 billion residents of India in fall 2010, the rationale was for those without proper identification to get one and in turn, gain access to essential services: subsidized food rations, a bank account, or a phone connection.
While India’s economy produces new crops of billionaires each year, many others are left behind. Millions live on less than $2 a day, do not have access to toilets or water, and are illiterate. Few poor people can prove who they are and this lack of identity excludes them from the welfare they are promised.
As they are pushed further away from modern economy, the state continues to spend a fortune on subsidized food of which two-thirds are stolen or adulterated by middlemen. Money from make-work schemes end up filling the pockets of officials who invent “imaginary” workers. Much of these problems are made possible by lack of accountability, something Aadhaar has potential to change.
The ambitious project, budgeted at USD 603 million, had planned to reach 200 million residents by March 2012. As of mid-April, around 170 million people had been issued UIDs with plans to arrive at 600 million residents or half the population by March 14, 2014.
There are currently over 20,000 offices equipped with fingerprint and iris scanners around India that enroll approximately one million people per day.
The latest data show that over 56% of enrollees did not previously have an ID such as a passport or driver’s license, of which 87% have an income of less than $2,000 per year, confirming that low-income earners tended not to have identity documents.
Critics of the project state concerns about privacy, identity theft, misuse, and security of data. According to The Washington Post, the government plans to use the database to monitor bank transactions, cell phone purchases, and the movements of individuals suspected of instigating terrorism. A lack of strong privacy and data-protection laws in India can fuel the concerns. There are also difficulties in implementing the project given a nonexistent structure for names and addresses, with many rural areas not well-defined.
Usha Ramanathan, an expert on law and poverty who has been campaigning against the project, signaled her concerns.
“You say you are going to cut out corruption and leakage. Who are the people who are going to control this? The assumption is that technology is neutral and cannot be manipulated. What technology does depends on who controls it. You are saying the whole system is corrupt, so let’s centralize data and hand it over to the same people. What sense does that make?”
In the meantime, the government has agreed to build safeguards and the project is gaining ground. In fact, the UIDAI, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, and National Payment Corporation of India have joined forces to start a pilot of micro ATM-based payments to beneficiaries via a banking solution with biometric identification.
As for those lining up to get their UIDs, no one seems to understand what Aadhaar will mean for them but just as the scheme is rolling ahead, they have yet to discount its potential.
“I’m not sure what the benefits are but it’s important to have an identity, for me and my baby,” said one young mother.
Though perhaps more than an identity, Aadhaar could become India’s game-changer that enables inclusion for the country’s poorest citizens and prevents wasted welfare.