Six types of problems Aadhaar is causing – and safeguards needed immediately

There have been lively debates on Aadhaar during the last ten years and the arguments are likely to continue for some time. Our purpose today is not to enter that fray, but to draw attention to the urgent need for emergency safeguards against “Aadhaar-related hassles” in welfare schemes. There is a wide range of such hassles, often causing inconvenience or worse to millions of people, especially among disadvantaged groups.

Many of them have been documented in a series of surveys, reports, articles, statements, audits, complaints, petitions, tweets and videos, but the alerts have largely fallen on deaf ears. Even ardent supporters of Aadhaar have good reason to pay more attention to these issues. Indeed, they have also emerged in evaluations of Aadhaar by institutions that have a favourable view of it, such as Dalberg, IDinsight and Niti Aayog.

Six types of Aadhaar-related hassles are briefly discussed below, along with possible safeguards. We stress that the proposed safeguards are just a form of immediate damage control. They do not obviate the need for a more basic reconsideration of some aspects of Aadhaar and indeed of Aadhaar itself.

1. Excessive Aadhaar imposition: In its September 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that Aadhaar authentication can be made mandatory…

Read more