Introduction- The concept UIDAI was initially set up by the government of India in January 2009,
as an attached office under the aegis of the planning commission via notification in the Gazette of India. According
to the notification, the UIDAI was giver the responsibility to lay down plans
and policies to implement the UIDAI scheme, to own and operate the UIDAI database, and to be responsible for its updating and maintenance on an ongoing
basis.
What is unique identification
authority of India (UIDAI)?
The Unique Identification Authority of India is a statutory
authority established under the provisions of the Adhar which is related
to targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies, benefits and services.
Adhar act 2016. The UIDAI comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information
technology (MeitY), Government of India.
Adhar is a 12- digital unique number that be obtained by residents
of India, based on their biometric and demographic data. The main
objective of Adhar card is to provide universal identity to every Indian
resident.
Resident’s meant to be?
1.
Any Indian Civilian is
eligible to apply the Adhar Card.
2.
Kids who have attained an
age of 3 years qualify to have an Adhar
3.
NRI and Foreigners Residing
in India are also eligible to take this Adhar.
Benefits of Adhar Card
There are various benefits of Adhar card especially to the Economically
Weaker Section (EWS) or citizens who are living in below poverty line (BPL).
They can get targeted subsidies from government’s ongoing
schemes by linking their Adhar card.
In addition to this it helps in reducing the corruption
since every individual carries only one unique number.
The problem of leakage,
that means when subsidies were given to the poor, they did not reach to them.
The middle man or the distributor of those services took advantage of those
services. Hence this leakage of benefits would also stop due to Adhar.
Issue related to Adhar card
It is believed that the card will further be given more importance
as more and more government schemes are being launched requiring it as a
mandatory document for every Indian citizen.
Adhar is India’s biometric identification system, which is the
largest such project in the world. Though Adhar has become the focal point of
debate on right of privacy as threats to data security and citizen’s rights to
privacy may come under threat.
The constitution of India does not provide the data protection
laws in the changing environment of today where hacking and different threats in
form of viruses, ransom ware etc. are on
the rise.
So mandating the Adhar
directly tempers with the Article 21 of the Indian constitution, i.e. right to
liberty which stated that “no person shall be deprived of his life or
personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”.
Since the constitution of India does not specially guarantee
‘right to privacy’, the determine of privacy as a right completely rests upon
the interpretation of the judiciary and has been subject to restrictions under
various provisions and judgments of the supreme court of India.
Cause of Data Leak: A rising threat
The information can easily be used by cybercriminals for
impersonation or identity theft as pointed by the various report. The main
problem of the issue in an unsecured API (application programming interface),
so data can be accessed easily.
Conclusion- The
intentions behind applying Adhar are appreciated as it targets the deserving beneficiary
avoids leakage and helps in maintaining the exact report. However, policies are
judged by the outcome not by intentions. Data Security is also a matter of
concern in the constantly changing world. The data can easily be compromised by
private companies, so there should be strong arrangement to save the data.
Download PDF for Free
Download PDF for Free
