Aadhaar: Ushering in a Commercialized Era of Surveillance in India

Sorry, you seem to be misinformed. If you look at Rethink Aadhaar [1] and its Twitter feed [2], you'd see how state governments were weeding out fake personas even without and before Aadhaar, and that Aadhaar by itself didn't make a big dent. All the claims of savings have reasons other than deduplication (including lies and excluding hundreds of thousands of genuine beneficiaries from welfare that they're legally entitled to).

What Aadhaar has really done is excluded poor people, manual laborers whose biometrics cannot be verified, those who live far from where their entitlements are given (forcing them to visit multiple times instead of working to earn money or live their lives), those who're in areas of poor network connectivity (which is really huge in India). People have literally died, because Aadhaar and the governments' blatant disregard of the Supreme Court orders to keep it optional have excluded them and treated them as non-persons and non-citizens.

Sorry, after reading up about all this for quite sometime, I feel so strongly about what's been happening that I'm going to be quite harsh here. Aadhaar is a genocide enabler that the government is using and turning a blind eye to. One cannot even take anybody to court for any failures or identity thefts on this matter, because that right is solely reserved for the UIDAI through the Aadhaar Act. And UIDAI would promptly respond or take action only if you're a famous cricketer (like Dhoni). The rest of them can keep trying the call center number 1947 and pray that the Gods listen and do something.

[1]: https://rethinkaadhaar.in/

[2]: https://twitter.com/no2uid

Every country has unique challenges, and India does too. But throwing technology, and that too unreliable technology with almost non-existent infrastructure (like connectivity in rural areas where the poor really have to have an Aadhaar for benefits), is a very naive way to handle it.

> And almost 20 million Bangladeshis have illegally crossed over from the eastern border [2] [3] and (unfortunately, reportedly getting Aadhar cards through whatever means,

Aadhaar is for any resident in India, and not just for citizens. Since Aadhaar is also provided through the "introducer" system without any documents, it's not difficult to get. Plus, UIDAI has blacklisted 34,000 enrollment agencies so far over the years. That's one rogue private agency every two hours, on average!

In the state of Assam (bordering Bangladesh), Aadhaar enrollment is not being done. The same is the case in a few other border states too.

Any assumption of Aadhaar identifying legal aliens vs. illegal aliens/non-citizens defies the very fundamental definition and implementation of Aadhaar. There is no way, currently, for Aadhaar to be used to identify citizens or even to be provided only to citizens!

> I think we would be in wrong to compare the "right to privacy" in this scenario to that of the more developed nations that are pretty much geographically blessed/ isolated, population wise less dense, religiously homogenous and technologically advanced as such that they can track covertly vis-a-vis getting biometric details directly.

I completely disagree. A country like India with lower awareness about privacy, identity theft, etc., actually needs privacy as a fundamental right more than other countries where such awareness is more. Now Indians are just being fooled and coerced into submission to get an Aadhaar number. Also, it's important to remember that privacy is not just about one person alone. Without privacy and safeguards, the very foundations of democracies will crumble when there can no longer be any kind of dissent or disagreement with respect to those in power (because they can use their means to find out who the dissenters are, where they go, who they communicate with, etc.).

Dismissing privacy as not a requirement is very dangerous for humans and societies. While it cannot be an absolute right, there certainly must be due process and safeguards against the state machinery misusing its powers against individual citizens. Currently India does not have any such safeguards.

Lastly, on your link on the Supreme Court asking if right to privacy is absolute, that case was heard and concluded last week. The court hasn't yet delivered its judgment. So taking piecemeal articles about the proceedings does not provide any meaningful way to understand what transpired.

One can only hope that the Supreme Court of India decides to declare privacy as a fundamental right subject to due process and considerations for different matters. If it doesn't declare so, the India of next century will likely be an authoritarian nation only because of Aadhaar and the lack of any consideration about privacy.

Please see the documentation accepted for proof of date of birth [1] and proof of address [2] to get an Indian passport. Both accept a valid Aadhaar number that can be verified. And an Aadhaar number can be obtained through an introducer without providing documents. Since the government has also claimed that there are fake PAN cards, fake drivers licenses, etc., an Aadhaar number can be obtained by providing those too. It's not as difficult to get a passport and claim citizenship as you think. Aadhaar, in a convoluted way, makes this a lot easier. It does not solve the problem in any way.

As for rations and subsidies, you can read the links tryprasannan has posted or visit Rethink Aadhaar [3] to understand how these claims are erroneous and how people are getting excluded.

[1]: http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/popuponline/Att...

[2]: http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/popuponline/Att...

[3]: https://rethinkaadhaar.in/