CENTRE FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY
The Nandan Nilekani headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) came in for much criricism at the first of a series of debates on the issue organised in the city on Friday - Deccan Chronicle, April 17th.
Bengaluru, April 16: Legal experts and several ordinary people find the move to give all citizens of the country an identity number an invasion of their privacy. The Nandan Nilekani headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) came in for much criricism at the first of a series of debates on the issue organised in the city on Friday.
Participants found the idea of concentrating so much power in one authority frightening. One of the panelists Usha Ramanathan of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies said that in two or three years people would not be able to travel without carrying their identity numbers on them. "The logic behind this is that if you don't have a number, you don't exist. Our personal information will be fed into the systems of various agencies with a certain set of people handling that data. Allowing so much power in the guise of security is handing too much control to the State," Ms Ramanathan said.
Malavika Jayaram of the Centre for internet and Society, described the UID as “a technological solution to a problem that isn't even technological in nature.”
Gautam John of Pratham Books, however, felt that a mechanism such as the UID could help identify school dropouts and in tracking quality of education.
But most complained about a lack of clarity on the issue
