 The name Ranjana Sonawane may not ring a bell very easily to most people. Yet, she will go down in history as a very significant individual. For, Ranjana was the first person in India to receive the Aadhaar number (on 29th September 2010). And, as of August 2017, over 1.17 billion people in India have been issued Aadhaar numbers. All this within 7 years, in what has been called as the largest and most sophisticated online biometric digital identity program of its kind in the world!
If even after this mass mobilization and enrollment, the success of the Aadhaar project has been questioned, it is because of its origin. The project began under controversial circumstances and has survived many a bureaucratic battle - which actually continues even now - as the scope of the project waxed and waned under different dispensations over these years. Even though the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was established on 28th January, 2009, it is only on 12th July, 2016, that the project finally got complete legal sanctity after the government enacted the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016, a law that has now put the UDAI project on a firm footing.
All this and more is narrated in detail in Shankkar Aiyar's book, Aadhaar - a Biometric History of India's 12-digit Revolution. With a journalist's penchant for story-telling, Aiyar has covered vast ground from the time the idea was conceived in the Manmohan Singh era of UPA-I to its 'Modification' (as he calls it) when the concept truly got embraced by a digital Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has unleashed Aadhaar's full power for e-governance (causing great anxiety to privacy advocates).
If today Aadhaar seems ubiquitous, it is ironic as the project was virtually still-born from the turf battles between various ministries (particularly the Finance Ministry under Pranab Mukherjee and the powerful Home Ministry, under P. Chidambaram), with an uncertain Manmohan Singh finding it difficult to weigh in on what he believed to be necessary in the nation's long-term interest. The role of Sonia Gandhi and her advisors in the National Advisory Council (a super-body that tended to over-play the social justice plank many times at the cost of commonsense decision making in matters economic) also caused a lot of uncertainties. Rahul Gandhi, in contrast, comes through in Aiyar's work, as being largely supportive of the project, even if at times on public platforms he is critical of the manner in which the project has evolved.
So, who are the brave men and women who made this herculean task of enrolling a billion plus into a digital identification program possible in the face of global scepticism of Indian bureaucracy's execution skills? While the recently retired former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, played a huge hand in clearing all policy blockages in the creation of Aadhaar, the real heroes are a team led by Nandan Nilekani, the former Managing Director (and current Chairman - in an interesting twist of fate) of Infosys Ltd., who wrote about it in his book, Imagining India, and was brought into the government to design and execute the project. Nilekani's two closest aides were Ram Sewak Sharma (of the Indian Administrative Services, and currently the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) who became the Chief Executive Officer and Ganga K, who became the Chief Financial Officer. This intrepid trio (with a support cast of hundreds, consisting of creative bureaucrats, tech wizards, social scientists, enthusiastic volunteers, branding, legal and media experts and multitude of other well-meaning associates), tirelessly worked on a mission mode to realize the dream which had been written-off as impossible. They navigated political, social, legal, economic and every other land-mine in their way to bring to life an identity process that has the potential to become the lever to transform the way democratic governments (particularly in a developing economy) can serve its citizens. While there are many examples of the benefits, the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) is a serious attempt to stem the rot in India where by public admission, it has been said that only 16 paisa out of Rupee's worth of development spend was reaching the targeted poor.
Is Aadhaar a perfect system? I don't think anyone has claimed it to be so. Late last month, the Supreme Court has ruled that Privacy is a fundamental right and activists on both sides of the Aadhaar debate have claimed victory. While the current government has willy-nilly chosen Aadhaar as the primary vehicle in its quest to cut through and streamline the procedural maze of Indian bureaucracy which has throttled the common man, there are many who worry that this is a tool for Big Brother to monitor our steps.
While Aiyar has presented arguments from both sides, he has refrained from emphatically staking his position. What comes through instead in his book, is the monumental effort that has gone into launching this amazing effort, in a short period, in a land where governance is still an ugly art form. But, the lesson that is evident is that given bi-partisan support by forward looking political leaders, there is much that can be achieved if Indian talent is permitted to flourish in a supportive environment. Alas, such events are too few and far between causing India to lurch unsteadily in a drunken stagger towards its development goals. Therefore, Aiyar's celebration of the success of the Aadhaar project is very welcome.
To read the complete issue click here.
|
The ELS Lotus logo is trademark of Empowered Learning Systems Pvt. Ltd.