#aadhaar

About 200 million Indians live with psychosocial disabilities, according to a study in the Lancet medical journal, and for their families, the disruption in essential services like free medication during the lockdown compounded the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. A government estimate of such Indians is much lower. Around 3.9 million persons live with psychosocial disabilities, a survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO) found in 2018. Even before Covid-19, just under 22% of persons with disability received aid from the government, 1.8% received aid from NGOs and 76.4% received no aid at all, the NSO survey had found. Disability allowance is also given only to persons with bank accounts and on provision of identity proof such as Aadhaar, which many do not have.

Civil libertarians are horrified, viewing the program, called Aadhaar, as Orwell’s Big Brother brought to life. To the government, it’s more like “big brother,” a term of endearment used by many Indians to address a stranger when asking for help.

The past experience of when the government uses data and hi-tech tools to target  the right beneficiaries has not been good or efficient. The power structures provide wrong or fake information to ensure their own inclusion, at the cost of the poor and marginalised. What the government has done with the tools like Aadhaar is that they have excessively collected information and have then used privacy as an excuse to keep it away from the community. The potential of misuse of techno-managerial tools is huge.

CBSE re-evaluation portal open till June 6; Aadhaar authentication must for additional security