October 03, 2017 21:02:04 |

The union government has made Aadhar card mandatory for a bouquet of services including availing the basic cell phone and banking services. Though there are concerns that the linking of Aadhar cards with the bank accounts and other financial data makes the privacy issues pronounced, the state government has woefully fallen short of promise on the performance front in issuing of Aadhar cards. The enrolment centers are not manned by trained staff and even the people have been issued acknowledgement slips which only corroborate the delay in delivery of these cards. The linking of SIM cards and the bank accounts with Aadhar to avail benefits of different subsidies has been made mandatory and people have been asked to comply with the instructions by February 2018. But the enrolment staff has been found to be seeking bribes also which is making the availing of the Aadhar cards a cumbersome task. Many of the banks have not allowed the linkage of the Adhar cards with the accounts through online platforms and the seeding of the cards with accounts has also not been possible through the ATM machines. What makes things worse is the lesser footprint of the banks, particularly in the rural areas. Due to the delay in issuance of Aadhar cards beneficiaries have been left bereft of the genuine government subsidies. This is matter which should have been addressed earnestly. Depriving the people of the basic services and benefits only thwarts the purpose of digital inclusion which the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is dreaming of. There is a general complaint that the Aadhar centers don’t exist in many areas and even a complaint grievance redress mechanism for delay in getting the cards is not robust. The idea of floating the Aadhar cards was to ensure the financial and digital inclusion of the people, but that has not been served. The Unique identification cards which are issued after proper recording of the biometric credentials of people were also aimed to check the manipulation of identities. But the service delivery mechanism in terms of linkage of Aadhar cards and the enrolment of the people for this unique identification service have been appealing. There is a need to step up the enrolment by opening more service centres and allow the ease of linkage with the different services. But more importantly an efficient system to ensure that there is no data breach is vital for the success of the programme. That is also important in the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgment that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.