‘Your basis to live is checked at each and every step’: India’s ID system divides opinion | India

IIt is often difficult for people in India to remember life before Aadhaar. Digital biometric identity, which is claimed to be available to every Indian citizen, was introduced only 15 years ago but its presence in daily life is ubiquitous.

Indians now need an Aadhaar number to buy a house, find a job, open a bank account, pay taxes, get benefits, buy a car, get a SIM card, book priority train tickets and admit children to school. Babies can be given Aadhaar numbers immediately after birth. Digital rights activists say that although not mandatory, the virtual absence of Aadhaar means the state does not recognize your existence.

For Umesh Patel, 47, a textile business owner in Ahmedabad city, Aadhaar has brought nothing but relief. He remembers the old days when he used to bring reams of papers to every official office just to prove his identity; Confusion still persisted. He now only shows his Aadhaar and said “everything has been made easier”, describing it as “an indication of how our country is using technology for the benefit of its citizens”.

“This is a solid system that makes life a lot easier,” Patel said. “This is also good for the security of our country because it reduces the chances of anyone forging documents.

“Aadhaar is now part of Indian identity.”

The plan was deemed so successful that it was among those scrutinized by the UK government as it planned to introduce mandatory ID cards for all citizens. But digital rights groups, activists and humanitarian groups paint a less rosy picture about Aadhaar and its impact on Indian society.

For the poorest and least educated in India (whose lack of literacy, education or documentation leaves them unable to obtain Aadhaar) the program has been highly exclusionary and therefore punitive; It deprived some of those who needed it most from receiving benefits or jobs. As pressure grows to link Aadhaar to voting rights and proof of citizenship, there are fears it will become a tool to further disenfranchise and demonize the poor.

Apar Gupta, founder and director of the Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation, said that for many in India, Aadhaar has become a form of “digital oppression”, with a constant demand for Aadhaar-based authentication every time they need to use a government service, enter a public space or simply go about their lives.

Gupta said Aadhaar has “metastasized” since its launch, becoming the basis for an ever-expanding bureaucratic minefield of unique IDs needed for people to do business. “Your basis for living is being checked at every step,” he said.

Critics allege India’s latest draft data protection and privacy law is not fit for purpose of protecting privacy and possible misuse of the highly valuable and sensitive Aadhaar database, which contains biometrics such as photos, facial scans, iris scans and fingerprints of more than 1 billion Indians.

Over the years, Indian media has revealed numerous breaches of Aadhaar data; these include an incident in 2018 when it was discovered that information on 1.1 billion Indians in the Aadhaar database had been sold online for as little as 500 rupees (£5).

“Under this law, which has not yet been notified, there is no way of knowing whether a data breach has been reported, and there is no oversight on how Aadhaar data may be aggregated with other databases, which could enrich broader tracking and surveillance of citizens,” Gupta said. “There is a complete lack of transparency.”

Although Aadhaar was introduced before prime minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has adopted and expanded its unique digital identity scheme with gusto. As India hosts the G20 summit in 2023, Modi cited Aadhaar as one of the key achievements of “digital India”, which has become an “incubator of innovation”. He claimed that eliminating corruption in social welfare programs had saved India more than $22 billion.

The government also pointed to the widespread adoption of Aadhaar as a measure of its success and universality. As of last month, more than 1.42 billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated (nearly the full size of India’s population), making it by far the largest digital identity scheme in the world. Before the plan, more than 400 million Indians did not have any official ID and did not have access to a bank account.

But the reality on the ground — especially in rural and tribal communities — was very different from what the government in Delhi painted, according to Chakradhar Buddha, a senior researcher at LibTech India, an organization that helps those left behind by India’s digital push.

“We have seen that those living in tribal, hilly or remote areas are not getting Aadhaar and this is not accepted on a large scale,” Buddha said.

“This is partly because they don’t have the right documentation or because their different documents are not fully understood; partly because technology is constantly changing, creating additional barriers that penalize the most vulnerable. Ultimately, this is a system that undermines access to basic social security and welfare for those who need it most.”

The government’s insistence that Aadhaar is a watertight authentication was questioned by Buddha; Buddha said he has seen many officials record incorrect names or details, creating bigger problems for communities. In one village with a tribal community without birth certificates, they were all given January 1 as their birthday. Tribal names are often misspelled in Aadhaar cards due to authorities not being familiar with these names.

Buddha warned that using Aadhaar as a universal basis for voting rights would lead to “mass expulsion of the poorest from the electoral rolls”, citing a recent example where millions of India’s poorest workers were mistakenly deleted from the government system after the Aadhaar verification system was introduced, depriving them of their livelihoods.

“These people are already deprived of social equality; now they want to use Aadhaar to take away their political equality and universal voting rights,” Buddha said.

Among those who recently faced the dangers of living without an Aadhaar card was Aalam Sheikh, 34, an illiterate laborer whose important identity documents and bag containing his Aadhaar card were stolen on a train.

What happened next was a Kafkaesque nightmare. Since he did not know the Aadhaar number given to him ten years ago, there was no way he could get a new card. Without this he was stopped from working in his construction business, depriving his family of a vital income and his son was subsequently forced to leave school.

Months later, despite traveling thousands of kilometers to his village, the Sheikh still could not solve the problem and get a new card. Meanwhile, without this he lives in fear of being declared an illegal citizen.

“This Aadhaar has become a nightmare for us. Why can’t the government maintain a proper system?” said Sheikh. “Everything works against the poor in this country, so does this Aadhaar card.”

Aakash Hassan contributed reporting