Skip to main content

With success rate of 0.03%, aadhar scheme fails to benefit poor, is "compulsory" despite Supreme Court order

By Our Representative
Well-known social scientist Reetika Khera, quoting a right to information (RTI) plea, has said that the the Unique Identification (UID) or aadhar has failed in its chief mission of offering one-stop identity to millions denied with public benefits because they had no identification. The RTI reply says, as of April 2015, as many as 83.5 crore persons were provided with aadhar numbers, of which just about 2.19 lakh (0.03 per cent) were issued to people "who did not have a pre-existing ID document."
"The rest have just acquired a third ID on top of at least two existing IDs", Khera -- who is a prominent economist with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and has been involved in monitoring the implementation of the previous UPA government's flagship programme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act -- says, despite this, "the Government of India continues to spend on UID . Till December 2014, nearly Rs. 6000 crores had been spent."
What is worse, says Khera in her revealing article on a reputed site, "Since 2012, the government has tried to make UID compulsory for various government services and programmes – through the backdoor. In Delhi, an order issued by the revenue department of the state government on January 1, 2013 makes aadhaar compulsory for all services provided by the department."
Thus, in the national capital, "those wanting to get married, register property, get gas connections, all have to show their aadhar numbers. Parents wanting to admit their children in the 25% quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in private schools under the Right to Education Act have to provide aadhar to get income certificates", the scholar says.
Calling it actually "an additional barrier for poor parents", Khera said, all this has happened despite the fact that, "in order to attract people to enrol, the UID authority published several documents that showcased the advantages of integrating the UID with social welfare programmes such as the NREGA and the Public Distribution System (PDS)."
The "compulsory" nature of aadhar was challenged in the Supreme Court, which on September 29, 2013, the Supreme Court said in an interim order, that “no person should suffer for not getting the Adhaar card in spite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory”.
On March 24, 2014, the Supreme Court issued a stronger order: “No person shall be deprived of any service for want of aadhaar number in case he/she is otherwise eligible/entitled. All the authorities are directed to modify their forms/circulars/likes so as to not compulsorily require the aadhaar number in order to meet the requirement of the interim order.”
"Neither interim order seems to have had much effect on either the state or Central governments. For instance, in February 2015, the Ministry of Rural Development issued an order making aadhaar compulsory for those working under NREGA", said Khera, adding, this made the Supreme court, in March 2015, to issued "a third order expressing its anger to the Central government for not abiding by its earlier orders."
Meanwhile, Khera says, "The government has proposed making Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) to individual bank accounts through a National Payments Corportaion of India (NPCI) an aadhaar-enabled system." It has done this despite the fact that "the additional merit of using aadhaar-enabled payments over electronic transfers through CORE banking is not entirely clear. The early experience of DBTs has not been particularly encouraging."
In Jharkhand, a pilot for aadhaar-enabled NREGA payments in five blocks suggested, failed. "The main role of aadhaar in the Jharkhand experiment was to facilitate payments through a business correspondent (BC), who could widen the reach of the banking system in rural areas. Dependence on fingerprint recognition, internet connectivity, and the goodwill of the BC created new vulnerabilities. It has been discontinued."

Comments

TRENDING

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Delhi HC rules in favour of retired Air Force officer 'overcharged' for Covid treatment

By Rosamma Thomas*  In a decision of May 22, 2023, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of petitioner Group Captain Suresh Khanna who was under treatment at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, between April 28 and May 5, 2021, for a period of eight days, for Covid-19 pneumonia. The petitioner had to pay Rs 3,55,286 as treatment costs, but the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) only reimbursed him for Rs 1,83,748, on the basis of government-approved rates. 

Urgency for next pandemic? But Mr Health Secretary, you're barking up wrong tree

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  The Union Health Secretary, Mr Rajesh Bhushan addressing the Health Working Group of G20 India, at Hyderabad on 05 June 2023, cautioned that the next pandemic would not wait for us to make global treaties and called on countries to work together.

Religious divide 'kept alive' with low intensity communalism in Gujarat's cultural capital

By Rajiv Shah  A fact-finding report, prepared by the Mumbai-based non-profit, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), has cited the Vadodara Ram Navami violence of March 30 as yet another example of how, after the BJP consolidating its hold on political power in Gujarat post-2002 riots and at the Centre in 2014, the nature of communal riots has changed, underlining, as opposed to high-intensity violence earlier, now riots have become “more sub-radar and at a smaller scale, more localized”.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Why continued obsession with adding more 'water guzzling' coal, nuclear power plants?

By Shankar Sharma*  The true concerns over water inefficiency in coal power plants have been known and have been highlighted many times in the past. A highly relevant study report by Prayas Energy Group had highlighted this fast looming threat to our society many years ago. But our authorities have been acting as though there can be no issue with water supply, and that additional coal power plants can be added indefinitely; even without any true relevance to climate change.

Generative AI as 'potent weapon and shield' in battle of political misinformation

By Haziq Jeelani*  In the pulsating heart of the digital era, the political arena is ceaselessly molded by the swift and relentless flow of information. The line between fact and fiction often blurs, creating a nebulous landscape where truth and deceit intertwine. 

Kailash Satyarthi NGO rescues 12 child workers from high profile Gujarat private varsity

By Our Representative  In a rather grim reflection of the state of child labour in Gujarat, 12 child labourers, most of whom belong to Rajasthan tribal communities, have been rescued from the campus of a high profile private university in Rajkot by a team of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), Labour Department, Centre for Labour Research and Action, and the Police.