Activists Cry Foul Against Aadhaar

Activists Cry Foul Against Aadhaar is a The Telegraph (India) report published on 12 January 2012. The article covers a civil society meeting held in Ranchi on 11 January 2012, convened by the Indian Social Action Forum, at which participants urged the Jharkhand state government to sever ties with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and halt the generation of Aadhaar numbers. Sunil Abraham, then Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore, was among the participants.

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Context and Background

Article Details

📰 Published in:: The Telegraph (India)
📅 Date:: 12 January 2012
📄 Type:: News Report
📰 Newspaper Link:: Not available

Full Text

Ranchi, Jan. 11: Biometric experts, jurists and social activists today urged the state government to immediately snap ties with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and stop offering Aadhaar numbers to residents.

Arguing that the creation of Aadhaar numbers had no legislative base as the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, was pending with Parliament, civil society members said UIDAI's project was unconstitutional.

They pointed out that the parliamentary standing committee had termed the biometric project "directionless".

"The biometric database of citizens, management of which will remain in the hands of some private companies, severely infringes on the right of citizens to privacy. A rule relating to security of biometric data is yet to come up, but UIDAI is going on generating them," said Usha Ramanathan, a jurist from Delhi at a meeting on the UID project here.

The meet on Aadhaar was convened in the state capital by the Indian Social Action Forum. The participants included social activist Dayamani Barla, director of Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society Sunil Abraham, biometric expert from Mumbai J.T. D' Souza and member of Citizens' Forum for Civil Liberties Gopal Krishna, among others.

The unique numbers are expected to be utilised extensively, from opening bank accounts to applying for LPG connections. UIDAI has already generated roughly 10 crore unique numbers.

Neither the Citizenship Act, 1955, nor Citizenship Rules of 2003 permit collection of biometrics, the experts added. "Both the UID and National Population Registrar projects adopt technology that risks national and individual security," observed D' Souza.

Context and Background

The meeting took place at a time when the Aadhaar project was facing sustained scrutiny from civil society on constitutional and privacy grounds. The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, which would have given UIDAI a statutory basis, had been referred to a parliamentary standing committee, which described the project as “directionless.” UIDAI was proceeding with enrolments in the absence of this legislation.

Sunil Abraham’s participation placed CIS in the company of a broader civil society coalition that included legal scholars, activists, and biometric experts, all raising overlapping concerns about the absence of a data security framework and the lack of parliamentary authorisation for the collection of biometric data.