Note:This is text of the first letter "Open Letter to Fellow Citizens Against Unique Identification Number & National Population Register" released on 1st June, 2010 by Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL).
Subject- Scrap Unique
Identification Number (UID)/ Aadhar project involving biometric data collection
linked to National Population Register (NPR)
Dear fellow citizens,
This is with reference to a privacy invasion
project which is relevant to India and all the democratic countries of the
world. The very first Bill that is to be presented by the new coalition
government of UK in the British Parliament is to repeal its Identity Cards Act
2006 even as Government of India has chosen to give approval to Unique
Identification Number (UID) project that threatens citizens’ privacy. Clearly,
what is poisonous for civil liberties in UK cannot become non-poisonous in
India.
If one takes cognizance of the claim that
“UID system is a civilian application of biometrics”[1]
and compares it with current practices, one finds that such a claim is quite
misplaced. In the report there is reference to a Study commissioned by the US
Department of Homeland Security to International Biometrics Group.[2]
Will someone explain how manifest reference to such a study constitutes
civilian application?
In our country,
it is rarely noticed as to when the concept of massively organized information
quietly emerged to become a means of social control, a weapon of war, and for
the victimization of ethnic groups. Co-founder and former chief executive of
Infosys Technologies Ltd, India’s second largest software company, Nandan Nilekani
has misled the Government of India into making it believe that in a country
with 48% illiteracy, a 12-digit card would be helpful in reaching the poorest
of the poor.
Unique
Identification Number (UID)/‘Aadhar' project that emerged from the constitution
of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in January, 2009 reminds
one of what happened from the period preceding Adolf Hitler’s arrival to
January, 1933 when he occupied power, to Second World War and since then. The way International Business
Machines (IBM), the world's largest technology company and the second most
valuable global brand colluded with the Nazis to identify Jews for targeted
asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and ultimately extermination to
help Hitler with its punch card and card sorting system--a precursor to the
computer made the automation of human destruction possible is matter of
historical fact.[3]
Unmindful of the lessons from Germany in
particular and Europe in general, advancing the argument of targeting, it has
been claimed on the floor of the parliament by the Indian Finance Minister
while presenting the 2010-11 Union Budget that UID project ‘would provide an
effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments,’[4]
the same targeting measures can be used with vindictive motives against
citizens of certain religion, caste and ethnicity or region or towards a
section of society due to economic resentment. Curiously, the Finance Minister
and the head of Unique Identification Number (UID)/ Aadhar project refer to
financial inclusion and not about economic inclusion of the poor. Exclusion of
certain sections of society for political reasons had led to the targeted
massacre of 1947, 1984 and 2002 in India. If an exhaustive trans-disciplinary
study is conducted it would reveal how privacy is closely connected to data
protection and the same was readily available to perpetrators of the riots,
massacres and genocide in our country.
Unique
Identification Number (UID)/ ‘Aadhar' project is going to do almost exactly the
same thing which the predecessors of Hitler did else how is it that Germany
always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of Nazis. The
Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM technology company which was in ‘Census’
business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but
also identifying them. In Washington at the United States Holocaust Museum,
there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was
responsible for organizing the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews.
Government of India cannot guarantee that in future when the Nazis or some such
sort come to power in India they would not have access to Unique Identification
Number (UID) for vindictive measures against certain sections of the citizenry. This is evidently the journey of
‘identification’ efforts from January 1933 to January 2009 when the Unique
Identification Number (UID) Authority was announced.
Unique
Identification Number and National Population Register is all set to do what
International Business Machines (IBM) did in Germany, Romania and in Europe and
elsewhere through ‘solutions’ ranging from the census to providing list of
names of Jews to Nazis. The Unique Identification Number and National
Populations Register have nothing to do with citizenship, it is merely an
identification exercise.
In such a backdrop, as
concerned citizens, we welcome the progressive step by the new coalition
government in UK to scrap its controversial national identity card (ID) scheme
in order to safeguard citizens’ privacy and act against intrusions. The
scrapping of the UK’s ID project is planned to be done in
the next 3-4 months. Besides repealing Identity Cards Act 2006 and
outlawing the finger-printing of children at school, UK government would stop
its National Identity Register and the next generation of biometric passports,
the Contact Point database and end storage of Internet and email records.
But
unlike UK, Government of India through a Press Information Bureau release dated
18 May, 2010 has stated that “The Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification
Authority of India related issues (CC-UIDAI) today approved in principle the
adoption of the approach outlined by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
for collection of demographic and biometric attributes of residents (face, all
ten fingerprints and iris) for the UID project. It was also decided to include
data of the iris for children in the age group of 5 to 15 years. The same
standards and processes would be adhered to by the Registrar General of India
for the National Population Register (NPR) exercise and all other Registrars in
the UID system.” Not surprisingly,
the government is feigning ignorance about the democratic movement against such
efforts. In India too, there is
a robust case against rejecting what has been rejected in the UK. Unique
Identification Number (UID)/ Aadhar project is a blatant case of infringement
of civil liberties. Government’s identification exercise follows the path of
The Information Technology Act, 2000 that was enacted in the absence of no data
or privacy protection legislation.
As
is the case with Unique Identification Number (UID)/ Aadhar project, in UK too
the scheme has been vacillating from one claimed purpose to another. The
project is being bulldozed in the name of poor by saying, “Identity becomes a
bottleneck if one wants to have a ration card, driving licence, passport, bank
account or a mobile connection. It will enable poor residents to access multiple
resources including education, health and financial services.” Following the
footprints of UK’s discredited project, it is being said that “The identity
number will help get a child admission in school.”[5]
Perhaps fearing abandonment of the project, in the aftermath of UK government’s
decision, it is being now said that the Unique Identification Number is
optional not mandatory.[6]
How
is it that two democracies deal with the issue of ungovernable breaches of
privacy differently? While UK government is pro-active in protecting privacy of
its citizens, Government of India is ridiculing the very idea of privacy and
civil liberties.
It is highly disturbing that at almost the same time India’s minority
coalition government plans to do just the contrary with astounding disregard to
citizens’ privacy by stamping them with an UID number based on their biometric
data. Such “surveillance” effort through world’s largest citizen identity
project for “Creating a Unique Identity Number for Every Resident in India” in history
undermines our democracy beyond repair.
Related
to the UID number project is the project of National Population Register (NPR).
This is for the first time that NPR is being prepared. The database will be
built by the Registrar General, India. It is noteworthy that census and NPR are
different. Census is the biggest source of data on demography, literacy and
education, housing and household amenities, economic activity, urbanization,
fertility, mortality, language, religion and migration. It serves as primary
data for planning and the implementation of policies of the Central and State
Governments.
National
Population Register (NPR) involves the creation of a comprehensive identity
database for the country. NPR will include the items of information such as the
name of the person, father’s name, mother’s name, spouse’s name, sex, date of
birth, place of birth, current marital status, education, nationality as
declared, occupation, present address of usual resident and permanent
residential address. The database will also contain photograph and finger
biometry of persons above the age of 15 years.
After
the National Population Register (NPR) database is finalized, the next task
would be assigning every individual a Unique Identification Number (UID). This
UID number will be added to the NPR database. It is proposed to issue identity
card, which will be a smart card with UID number printed on it and include
basic details like name, mother’s/father’s name, sex, date and place of birth,
photograph. Complete details will be stored in the chip.
Like
in the UK, in India too, there is a need for a similar measure to stop the
efforts underway through the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
to issue a unique identification number to every resident in the country.[i]
Issuing unique identity numbers to the 1.2 billion residents in India based on
biometric data is fraught with hitherto unimaginable dangers of human rights
violations. It has emerged that it all started rolling in the aftermath of a
meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers on November 4, 2008 and a meeting
of the Prime Minister's Council of the UID Authority on August 12, 2009,
wherein it was decided that there was a “need for a legislative framework” akin
to UK’s Identity Cards Act 2006 which is now being scrapped.
The 13th Finance Commission has made a
provision for an incentive of Rs 100 per person (Rs 400-500 per family) to
bribe citizens below the poverty line to register for the UID and has
recommended a grant of Rs 2,989.10 crore to be given to the state governments
for the same. The three states who have
signed an MOU on their part have set up state level committees to work as
registrars of UIDAI for collecting biometric samples like thumb impression or
cornea configuration of each individual resident. The Karnataka government has
set-up the Center for e-Governance and a state-level UID implementation
committee under the chief secretary; Madhya Pradesh has set-up a cabinet
committee on UID under the chief minister and a state UID implementation
committee under the chief secretary. The Andhra government too has set-up a
state level empowered committee under the chief minister and state UID
implementation committee under the chief secretary. Has there been any debate
so far in the legislatures about the ramifications of a project which is all
set to be scrapped in UK?
As per Authority’s Office Memorandum[ii]
signed by Director General, UIDAI dated September 29, 2009, “The main objective
is to improve benefits service delivery, especially to the poor and the
marginalized sections of the society. To deliver its mandate, the UID Authority
proposes to create a platform to first collect the identity details and then to
perform authentication that can be used by several government and private service
providers.”[7] The
reference to “private service providers” is inexplicable for the work is meant
to be an exercise for public purpose and for the poor and the marginalized. The
promise of service delivery to the poor and the marginalized hides how it will
enable access to profit for the IT industry and the biometrics industry.
Such claims are quite insincere,
misleading, factually incorrect. It reminds one of the pledges in the preamble
of the Constitution of India, it will have us believe that UID Authority would
fulfill the constitutional promise of economic equality. Such objectives are
bad sophistry at best.
This Authority in turn set up a Biometrics
Standards Committee in order “to review existing standards and
modify/extend/enhance them so as to achieve the goals and purpose for
de-duplications and authentication” through framing biometrics standards for
fingerprints, face and iris.
The Authority defines Biometrics as “the
science of establishing the identity of an individual based on the physical,
chemical or behavioural attributes of the person.” Besides the photos of the
face are commonly used in various types of identification cards, it is
undertaking the use of fingerprints for identification and recording Iris, the
annular region of the eye, bounded by the pupil and sclera on either side which
is considered the most accurate biometric.[iii]
The committee reveals that “The biometrics
will be captured for authentication by government departments and commercial
organizations at the time of service delivery.”[8]
The commercial organization mentioned herein is not defined.
The Biometrics Standards Committee refers to
previous experiences of the US and Europe with biometrics. A technical
sub-group was also formed that collected over 250,000 fingerprint images from
25,000 persons were sourced from districts of Delhi, UP, Bihar and Orissa for
analyzing Indian fingerprints. It may do the same for Iris and face as well to
form a database size of 1.2 billion. It has been recommended that “Biometrics
data are national assets and must be preserved in their original quality.”[9]
The Committee refers to citizens database as national asset. Are’t citizens
assets in themselves whose civil liberties gives legitimacy to the every
existence of nation-state.
Both Unique Identification Number and
National Population Register through convergence represent a case of
the state, and the ‘market’ tracking citizens for one reason or the other. It
is neither benign in its design nor in its execution. The working paper of the
UIDAI revealed that the “UID number will only guarantee identity, not rights,
benefits or entitlements”. It is also said that it would not even guarantee identity, it would only provide
‘aid’ in identification.
We support the campaign of the people’ movements,
mass organizations, institutions and concerned citizens and individuals who
strongly oppose the potential tracking and profiling based techno-governance
tools such as the Unique Identification number. We demand that Parliament or
the Comptroller and Auditor General should probe the UID Authority’s work from
January 2009 till date. (The picture of UID/Aadhaar Enrolment Form)
In
view of the above mentioned facts, we submit that the collection of such data
is a classic case of gross violation of fundamental human rights. Government of
India should take prompt lessons from the UK government’s decision to scrap its
National ID project and desist from taking the path paved by IBM for holocaust
and abandon its Unique Identification Number (UID)/ Aadhar project.
Yours faithfully
Gopal Krishna
Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties
New Delhi
Mb: 9818089660,
E-mail: krishna2777@gmail.com
*Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties is an
initiative of the MediaVigil which is working since March 2004. It is a
collective of media practitioners, researchers and activists.
[1] Biometrics
Design Standards For UID Applications, Planning Commission, prepared by: Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Committee on Biometrics, p. 9,
Version 1.0, December 2009
[2] Study
is titled “Independent Testing of Iris Recognition Technology, Final Report,
May 2005” referred in the report of the Biometrics Design Standards For UID
Applications, Planning Commission, prepared by: Unique Identification Authority
of India (UIDAI) Committee on Biometrics, p. 56, Version 1.0, December 2009
[3] Edwin, Black IBM and
the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and
America's Most Powerful Corporation, 2001, Crown Publishing and others worldwide,
US
[4] Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his budget speech allocated a budget of Rs. 1900
crore for financial year 2010-11
[5] In an Interview to Shelley Singh & Pramugdha Mamgain, ‘Identity will
help the poor participate in economic growth’: Nandan Nilekani, 26 May 2010,
The Economic Times
[6] Balchand K, AADHAR not
mandatory, says Nilekani, May 12, 2010, The Hindu
[7] Biometrics
Design Standards For UID Applications, Planning Commission, prepared by: Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Committee on Biometrics, p. 25,
Version 1.0, December 2009
[8] Biometrics
Design Standards For UID Applications, Planning Commission, prepared by: Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Committee on Biometrics, p. 8,
Version 1.0, December 2009
[9] Biometrics
Design Standards For UID Applications, Planning Commission, prepared by: Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Committee on Biometrics, p. 5,
Version 1.0, December 2009
[i] Notes
[i] Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI) was constituted by the Government of India on 28th
January, 2009 as an attached office of the Planning Commission. Prime
Minister’s Council on UID Authority was constituted on 30th July, 2009 and its
first meeting was held on 12th August, 2009. Subsequently, the Government
constituted a Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India
related issues (CC-UIDAI) in October 2009 to look into all issues relating to
UIDAI including its organisation, plans, policies, programmes, schemes, funding
and methodology to be adopted for achieving the objectives of the
Authority. On June 25th 2009, the Union
Cabinet created and approved the position of the Chairperson of the UIDAI, and
appointed Nandan Nilekani as the first Chairperson in the rank and status of a
Cabinet Minister. R S Sharma has been appointed the Director General. Address by the President of
India, to Parliament dated 22nd February 2010 notes, “The
Unique Identification Authority of India has been established with a mandate to
issue unique identity numbers based on biometrics to all residents of India.
This mammoth and unprecedented exercise will serve as a great enabler to
improve targeting and delivery of major government welfare programmes and
public services, especially to those who are poor and marginalized. The first
set of unique identity numbers is expected to be issued in the early part of
2011.”
[ii] Copy
of the Office Memorandum of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
dated September 29, 2009 was forwarded to Cabinet Secretary, Principal
Secretary to the PM, all the Secretaries to the Government of India, all the
Chief Secretaries of the States and Union Territories for information
[iii] The
Authority’s Biometrics Committee informs, “Fingerprint
technology constitutes approximately half of the total biometrics market”. It
attempts to assure citizens by saying, “The iris sample acquisition is
done without physical contact and without too much inconvenience to the person
whose iris image is being acquired. Iris has no association with law
enforcement and has not received negative press and may therefore be more
readily accepted.”
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