Is Aadhaar Reliable enough as a Digital Identification?

Back in September 2010, Aadhaar, a 12-number-based identification system, the biggest in the world, was launched in India with a view of serving as digital identification for every citizen. Managed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), in recent years, the government has made Aadhaar mandatory for all welfare schemes like MGNREA, bank account opening, Direct Bank Transfer, etc. It has helped the government to reach the weaker section and has helped the government in delivering its policies and benefits. But there still lies the big question mark, Is it reliable?

In a recent report by Moody’s, a global rating major, Aadhaar identification fails on many points.

1. Frequent failures of biometric and iris scanners jeopardise one’s privacy. The hot and humid climatic condition exacerbates the biometric system. The major victims of these failures are the elderly and the manual labor class because many a time, their biometric identification fails and they are unable to prove their existence.

2. Centralisation of data makes it easier to hack and the data of 140 odd million people is at risk including their addresses, date of birth, parent’s name, and whatnot.

3. An audit of the UIDAI by the CAG of India also pointed out cases of data piracy and privacy breaches.

Though Aadhaar has played a major role by enabling the government to transfer funds and its schemes to the needy, it has a lot of space for improvement. UIDAI must form a regulated and well-thought plan to counter these challenges if it wants to use Aadhaar as the back of Digital Identification. If it is able to bring said changes, Aadhaar will be recognised as a benchmark in the public identification system.

?