[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-26

[Taha Mehmood]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1062469.cms

THE LEADER ARTICLE: Identity Crisis: In Search of a Permanent Citizen
Identification Scheme

26 Mar 2005, 0000 hrs IST, Prodyut Bora

The government and its agencies started out trying to create a traceable and
unique identification scheme for its citizens. However, in
attempting to do so, it has created so many identification schemes that they
have become the problem rather than the solution. The government's approach
to the problem is rather like the blind men groping over an elephant. Just
as each man declaimed he had identified the object merely by touching a
portion of its body, we have the government issuing 'final' solutions to the
identification question all the time.

For long, most Indians have been using a ration card as their primary form
of identification when dealing with the government. Although its objective
was to provide a minimum amount of foodgrains and basic household
necessities to people living below a certain income level, it soon emerged
as the only proof of citizenship for those that could not afford amenities
like personal vehicle, telephone, banking etc. Often, producing the ration
card on demand could be the difference between life and death, as
illustrated by the many cases of tsunami-hit people that were denied aid
because they could not unearth their ration cards from the rubble left
behind by the waves.

Prior to the early 90s, very few people could afford personal vehicles or go
abroad. Mercifully the situation is changing now, and more Indians are
equipping themselves with a driving licence and passport: Two additional
documents of identification. However, there was a time when the Election
Commission (EC) had to decide on a standard documentary evidence that
citizens would have to show before being permitted to vote. Instead of
picking any of the existing identification forms, it chose a brand new one:
the voter ID card. Ditto for the taxman: the Permanent Account Number (PAN)
card.

While all this was going on, the government declared, and rightly so, that
the country ought to have a national register of citizens (NRC). As a sign
of inclusion in the NRC every Indian would be given a multipurpose national
identity card (MNIC). Considering the danger that continually increasing
infiltration from across our borders poses, and the ease with which any
foreign national can obtain identification documents like ration cards and
driving
licences, it was thought that an NRC and MNIC would provide a single-point
reference for validating identity. It was also thought that over time it
would replace the multiplicity of documentary evidence, with one single
piece of paper that would be acceptable and honoured across the whole range
of governmental institutions and statutory bodies.

Finally, with all the talk of e-governance and G2C (government to citizen),
it was assumed that a single MNIC Number could be used to access all
governmental services online. And should the corporate and education sector
want it, such identification tools could be used by them as well.

While the momentum of the NRC and MNIC scheme has slowed down with the
change in government, the vision of a nationally valid, multipurpose
application, secure identification scheme remains. But it takes only a
moment's notice to crack a dream. As if all the previous forms of
identification were not good enough, as if an NRC and MNIC aren't
comprehensive enough, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in
late 2003 mooted the idea of a central database of market
participants, subsequently called MAPIN (Market Participants and Investors
Database), and a Unique Identification Number (UIN). And just recently it
has released a notification that effective April 1, 2005, investors entering
into a securities market transaction of a value of Rs 1 lakh or more need to
quote their MAPIN-UIN. Although SEBI has subsequently modified its order and
extended the deadline to December 31, 2005, the arguments still stand.

Several commentators have already criticised the SEBI move for a variety of
reasons, not the least for its demand that anyone desiring a MAPIN-UIN would
have to provide their fingerprints "like a common criminal". My objective is
not to question SEBI's authority to create MAPIN, but to ask the government
one simple question: When will this madness end? First you have a Permanent
Account Number (PAN), then you have a Multipurpose National Identity Card
(MNIC), and now you have a Unique Identification Number (UIN). So how is PAN
permanent, MNIC multipurpose and UIN unique?

It's not that there are no success stories to draw from. Take the US Social
Security Number (SSN) scheme. Whether it is opening a bank account or
filling a tax form or buying a gun, quoting one's SSN or showing one's
driving licence is good enough.

More cases from around the world abound. The UK has already initiated
legislation for a National Identity Register (NIR) and a National ID Card.
The European Union has started work on EUCLID (European initiative for a
Citizen digital ID solution). The Indonesian government has introduced what
it calls SIN (Single Iden-tity Number), to replace various citizen
identification numbers like driving licence number, taxpayer number, and
other such numbers issued by government bodies.

The question in front of the government is: How long are we going to create
these little islands of automation before good sense dwells and one of the
world's leading countries in the field of IT realises the benefit of a
single identity and identification scheme?

(The author is a member of BJP's media cell.)