Source: huffingtonpost.in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the run-up to the\u00a0Supreme Court\u00a0judgement on the\u00a0constitutional validity\u00a0of\u00a0Aadhaar, exactly a year ago, there had already been many news reports that outlined the\u00a0many problems with Aadhaar, such as\u00a0multiple starvation deaths, problems with\u00a0biometric verification, Aadhaar cards being\u00a0bought and sold, and a\u00a0frightening number\u00a0of\u00a0data leaks\u00a0from a huge number of\u00a0government departments. However, the court still ruled on 26 September 2018 that Aadhaar should be used for the disbursement of benefits and subsidies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government immediately leaped into action, passing an ordinance to allow the\u00a0ID to be used by companies. In the year that has passed since the order, we\u2019ve gone back to business as usual with Aadhaar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, Udbhav Tiwari, public policy adviser at Mozilla, wrote in an article for\u00a0HuffPost India<\/em>\u00a0that there is a pressing need for a\u00a0data protection law in the country, along with a strong, independent, and empowered government regulator.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGiven the rapid increase in adoption of Aadhaar by the private sector within one year of the Aadhaar judgment, any further delay in passing the law will only increase the likelihood of harm to Indians and their personal data,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal expert Usha Ramanathan points that the function-creep of Aadhaar has once again\u00a0broadened its dragnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In just the past few months, Aadhaar has become\u00a0mandatory for EPF nominees, and people are being denied their benefits due to fingerprint mismatches and other\u00a0technological glitches. As always, it\u2019s the most vulnerable that are the most affected\u2014for example, elderly octogenarians who were denied their rations because of a fingerprint authentication issue at the PDS shop they have been shopping from for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Aadhaar has become a cause for exclusion, it\u2019s still vulnerable to misuse and hasn\u2019t ended fraud the way the government promised it would. Just last week, a\u00a0case\u00a0was filed in Ratlam against a sarpanch and other members of the gram panchayat, who obtained the Aadhaar cards of people in the village and linked that with their own fingerprints to operate the linked bank accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another incident at the beginning of this week, it was\u00a0revealed\u00a0that 3,000 unauthorised Aadhaar cards were made by a gang in Meerut, after stealing usernames and passwords from Aadhaar operators at a Syndicate Bank branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was also a curious case of a man from Rohtak, who made a police complaint because his Aadhaar card had allegedly been used in a fraudulent manner by an unknown person to get bail from different courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, the many problems linked with the misuse of Aadhaar have not gone away in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, Aadhaar continues to grow\u2014in ways that might not make sense at first glance. Although the use of Aadhaar is voluntary for things like phone connections, in many stores the staff will continue to insist upon it and say that alternatives are not available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this can be chalked up to store managers being misinformed, it\u2019s when Aadhaar becomes a requirement to enter a temple, it starts to get really ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A temple in\u00a0Bandipur\u00a0Tiger Reserve is doing exactly that\u2014the reserve\u2019s director told\u00a0TheTimes of India<\/em>\u00a0that villagers who have to pray at the temple have to provide photocopies of their Aadhaar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many companies are also now asking for Aadhaar cards when you start a new job\u2014at least one MNC now lists it as a requirement for even appearing for a job interview, as per forms seen by HuffPost India<\/em>. When asked about it, the HR team simply said this was company policy that they had to follow, and that they could not finish the form without the number. However, after some time, they agreed that if an Aadhaar number is not available, then one could apply for the job with a PAN number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ad-hoc decision making and unclear guidelines mean that although Aadhaar might have been checked by the Supreme Court judgement, it has continued to proliferate. One year later, we\u2019re back to where we started, and possibly even worse off than before.<\/p>\n