Aadhaar

 

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be gotten deliberately by citizens of India, non-residents passport holders of India and resident foreign nationals who have gone through more than 182 days in a year promptly going before the date of application for enrolment, in view of their biometric and demographic information. The information is gathered by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory authority set up in January 2009 by the government of India, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, following the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016.

Aadhaar is the world's biggest biometric ID system. World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer depicted Aadhaar as "the most cosmopolitan ID programme in the world". Considered a proof of home and not a proof of citizenship, Aadhaar doesn't itself award any rights to domicile in India. In June 2017, the Home Ministry explained that Aadhaar is certainly not a valid identification document for Indians venturing out to Nepal and Bhutan.

Preceding the enactment of the Act, the UIDAI had worked, since 28 January 2009, as a connected office of the Planning Commission (presently NITI Aayog). On 3 March 2016 a money bill was introduced in the Parliament to give legislative support to Aadhaar. On 11 March 2016 the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and different Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016, was passed in the Lok Sabha.

Aadhaar is the subject of a few decisions by the Supreme Court of India. On 23 September 2013 the Supreme Court issued an interim order saying that "no individual ought to suffer  over not getting Aadhaar", adding that the government can't deny a service to a resident who does not have Aadhaar, as it is wilful and not mandatory. The court additionally restricted the extent of the program and reaffirmed the deliberate nature of the identity number in other rulings. On 24 August 2017 the Indian Supreme Court conveyed a milestone verdict insisting the right to privacy as a fundamental right, overruling past decisions on the issue. A five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court heard different cases identifying with the validity of Aadhaar on different grounds including privacy, surveillance, and exclusion from welfare benefits. On 9 January 2017 the five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India held its judgment on the interim relief looked for by petitions to expand the cutoff time making Aadhaar required for everything from bank accounts to mobile services. The last hearing started on 17 January 2018. In September 2018, the top court maintained the validity of the Aadhaar system. In the September 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court by the by specified that the Aadhaar card isn't required for opening bank accounts, getting a mobile number, or being conceded to a school. Some civil liberty groups such as the Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties and the Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) have likewise gone against the undertaking over privacy concerns.

Notwithstanding the validity of Aadhaar being tested in the court, the central government has pushed residents to interface their Aadhaar numbers with a host of services, including mobile sim cards, bank accounts, the Employees' Provident Fund Organization, and an enormous number of welfare schemes including yet not restricted to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Public Distribution System, and old age pensions. In 2017 reports proposed that HIV patients were being compelled to stop treatment inspired by a paranoid fear of identity breach as admittance to the treatment has gotten dependent upon creating Aadhaar.

 

Predominant uses of Aadhaar

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)

The Aadhaar project has been connected to some public subsidy and unemployment benefit  plans, for example, the domestic LPG plan and MGNREGA. In these Direct Benefit Transfer schemes, the subsidy cash is straightforwardly moved to a bank account which is Aadhaar-connected. Beforehand, nonetheless, the direct-benefit transfer had been completed effectively by means of the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system, which didn't rely upon Aadhaar.

On 29 July 2011, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas marked signed a memorandum of understanding  with UIDAI. The Ministry had trusted the ID system would assist with killing loss of the subsidised kerosene and LPG. In May 2012 the government reported that it would start giving Aadhaar-connected MGNREGS cards. On 26 November 2012 a pilot programme was dispatched in 51 regions.

PM Modi has requested combination of all land records with Aadhaar at the soonest, underscoring at his month to month PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation) meeting on 23 March 2016 that this was critical to empower checking of the effective execution of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana or crop insurance scheme.

 

Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance systems

In July 2014 Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance systems were presented in government offices. The system was acquainted with check late appearance and non-attendance of government workers. The general population could see the everyday all through workers on the site attendance.gov.in. In October 2014 the site was shut to general population however starting at 24 March 2016 is again active and open to public use. The employees utilize the last four digits (last eight digits for government worker registering  as of August 2016) of their Aadhaar number and their fingerprints, for validation.

 

Different utilizations by central government agencies

In November 2014 it was accounted for that the Ministry for External Affairs was thinking about making Aadhaar a compulsory necessity for passport holders. In February 2015 it was accounted for that individuals with an Aadhaar number would get their passports issued inside 10 days, as it accelerated the confirmation process  by making it simpler to check if a candidate had any criminal records in the National Crime Records Bureau data set. In May 2015, it was declared that the Ministry of External Affairs was trying the connecting of passports to the Aadhaar information base.

In October 2014 the Department of Electronics and Information Technology said that they were thinking about connecting Aadhaar to SIM cards. In November 2014 the Department of Telecom requested that all telecom operators gather Aadhaar from all new candidates of SIM cards. On 4 March 2015 a pilot project was launched permitting Aadhaar-connected SIM cards to be sold in certain urban communities. The buyer could actuate the SIM at the hour of purchase by presenting his Aadhaar number and pressing his fingerprints on a machine. It is important for the Digital India plan. The Digital India project aims to give all government services to residents electronically and is relied upon to be finished by 2018.

In July 2014 the Employees' Provident Fund Organization of India (EPFO) started connecting provident fund accounts with Aadhaar numbers. In November 2014 the EPFO turned into a UIDAI registrar and started giving Aadhaar number to provident fund subscribers. In December 2014 Labor Minister Bandaru Dattatreya explained that an Aadhaar number was not vital for any provident fund transaction.

In August 2014 Prime Minister Modi guided the Planning Commission of India to enlist all prisoners in India under the UIDAI.

In December 2014 it was proposed by the Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi,that Aadhaar ought to be made required for men to make a profile on wedding sites, to forestall counterfeit profiles. In July 2015 the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) assembled a conference of different marital sites and different partners examine the utilization of Aadhaar to forestall counterfeit profiles and shield ladies from abuse.

On 3 March 2015 the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) of the Election Commission was begun. It expects to connect the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) with the Aadhaar number of the registered voter. It expects to make a blunder free voter identification system in India, particularly by eliminating duplications.

 

Different utilizations by states

In the Hyderabad district of Telangana state, Aadhaar numbers were connected to ration cards to eliminate copy ration cards. The project was begun in July 2012 and was done notwithstanding the 2013 Supreme Court order. In excess of 63,932 ration cards in the white classification and 229,757 names were taken out from its information base in the drive between July 2012 and September 2014. In August 2012 the government of the territory of Andhra Pradesh requested that residents surrender illicit ration cards before it started to interface them with Aadhaar numbers. By September 2014 15 lakh illicit ration cards had been given up. In April 2015 the territory of Maharashtra started selecting all school students in the state in the Aadhaar project to carry out the Right to Education Act appropriately.

Electronic-Know Your Customer (e-KYC) utilizing Aadhaar card is additionally being acquainted to enact mobile connections quickly to check Aadhaar Card Status.

 

PVC Card

In the year 2020, UIDAI presented a PVC Aadhar Card with extra security highlights like visualizations holograms, micro text, ghost images, guilloché Patterns, invisible logos  and so on. The PVC Aadhar card can be ordered by any Aadhar holder from UIDAI's site.

 

Obstacles and different concerns

  • Achievability concerns
  • Absence of legislation and privacy concerns
  • Legality of sharing data with law enforcement
  • Land allotment dispute
  • Security concerns
  • Overlaps with National Population Register
  • Deceit
  • Application issues
  • Threat of exclusion
  • Information leaks
  • Virtual ID
  • Revolving door problem