Aadhaar’s principal goals were to end fraud and reach welfare to the poorest. But in practice it has achieved neither. The claimed elimination of bogus cards has been found to be exaggerated. On the other hand, the insistence on the Aadhaar card has led to the brutal exclusion from welfare of the very poor and the homeless — for reasons such as not being on the Aadhaar data base, not having a fixed address and failing the biometric identification test. Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri, Right to Food activists, point out why Aadhaar initiative is not only ill-suited to prevent corruption but could also rob the needy of their basic state support.
As the Aadhaar matter comes up in the Supreme Court, it is perhaps a good time to assess how far the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, has been successful in meeting the objectives which it set out to achieve.
Twin objectives
The UIDAI Strategy Overview states, “In India, an inability to prove identity is one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies…A clear identity number would transform the delivery of social welfare programs by making them more inclusive of communities now cut off from such benefits due to their lack of identification.” It goes on to state, “A single, universal identity number will also be transformational in eliminating fraud…”
The two primary objectives of Aadhaar, therefore were to rid the system of corruption, and to give every citizen of India a proof of identity – something many poor and marginalized in the country lacked.
Fighting corruption?
When the Narendra Modi government came to power riding on the promise of fighting corruption and ensuring effective service delivery, it was assumed that the government will put in place a strong anti-corruption and grievance redress framework to ensure that no one is denied their rightful entitlements.
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