[Reader-list] UID CARD Doubts

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Bipin and Rajender,

In exchanging mails with you guys, I have been able to make an
interesting archive of attitudes and notions which bind people to the
charm of identity cards. Thank you so much for your responses.

In this regard may I just say that I do not have any problem with the
idea of Census. That is, Census as enumeration of people. However
Census as it has been carried out in the present form in India, is
deeply problematic. Let me give you some examples to demonstrate why I
think so.

I draw your attention to excerpts from a story filed by Sugata
Srinivasaraju and published by Outlook Magazine.

problem lies in obtaining the fingerprints of rural folk: most of them
are engaged in manual labour or farm work and arrive with dirty palms
that defeat the biometric reading machines. Pails of water, detergent
and towels are provided for cleaning up. Much time is lost in such
rescanning and it goes against the official  estimate of five minutes
for the young, nine for the elderly.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265326

Could we assume that if UID is not able to get proper fingerprints of
those people in whose name it was established then should not
seriously think about the veracity of its claims?

Mr. Nilekani wrote a book. In that book he claimed that Technology can
help bring underprivileged to the mainstream. Now we are seeing of
instances of how technology is not ideal it is claimed to be. Why
should we waste so much money on this exercise?

Take another excerpt. People are being fed all sorts of stories about
the magical powers to this card. Isn't this bizzare?

Villagers are enthusiastic about this rigorous profiling process even
though there’s little awareness about the true purpose of the
exercise. This is because of some falsehoods that have somehow spread
in these areas. Nagamma, an elderly woman coming out after being
profiled, thinks her eyes had been tested and found to be in perfect
condition. Another middle-aged woman thought the exercise would bring
her a new ration card—one that would entitle her family to an extra
four kilos of rice. Some others were in a tizzy that if they didn’t
undergo this “photography” their BPL cards would be taken away. Most,
however, had queued up because they didn’t want to be left out of a
sarkari exercise their neighbours were submitting to. Of the dozen
people Outlook  spoke to, only Muniswamy could tell us that this
process would ensure that no one had more than one voter ID card or
ration card—the way it should be, unlike some in his village who had
illegally acquired two of each.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265326

Identity card theft is increasing all over the world. Even if our UID
which seems like a hotch-potch archive of hearsays and false
impressions gets working then what is the guarantee that the data will
be protected?
And what do you guys have to say about excerpt from the story below?

CIFAS – a not-for-profit fraud prevention service – said there has
been a 20% increase in identity fraud in the first three months of
2010 compared to the same period last year, with 27,000 victims. Far
more fraudsters are making use of the victim's current address, which
because it is genuine, is more difficult to detect.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/may/16/false-identity-cost

Warm regards

Taha