Not just a privacy issue; Aadhaar will hurt the poor

I now come to the Midday Meal Scheme. We are harassing children, who are in the age group of 0-5 years and 6-10 years. Instead of extending to them the benefits of the scheme, we are giving them mental torture What development needs do ‘linking databases together’ meet? Why would you want personal data or health transaction details? Twenty-one databases are being linked with NATGRID, with Aadhaar as a unique identifier

Sir, imagine a 24-year-old girl who finished her college, gone for a job in a bank or a telecom company, done exceptionally well in her interview, excited and she is all set to get a job. But, suddenly, much against all expectations, she gets a rejection letter! The reason for rejection letter, unfortunately, is, when they had gone into the details, they found that government scholarship scheme funded her education and her father was a manual scavenger. So, what happens to that girl, sir? She loses her job. Sir, Aadhaar is not an issue of privacy alone; Aadhaar hurts the marginalised and Aadhaar will hurt the poorest of the poor.

Don’t get me wrong; we are all for Aadhaar. But, in implementation of Aadhaar, we have some serious issues. As I said, privacy may be a middle class or an upper middle class perception issue. Sir, it is not; it is an issue which hurts the marginalised. This is the first point I wanted to make, through you, sir, to the hon minister. Sir, manual labour is done under MGNREGA. But, here, biometrics does not match. All research says why biometrics does not match, because they are stone crushers, they are doing construction work, they work in limestone mines, etc. So, their biometrics does not match. This is not about some privacy issue and not wanting my privacy to be invaded. Sir, I now come to the Midday Meal Scheme. Mr Jairam made a point earlier. I do not want to repeat it. But, what are we doing? We are harassing children, who are in the age group of 0-5 years and 6-10 years. These children are the beneficiaries of this scheme. Instead of extending the benefits of the scheme to them, what we are doing is, we are giving them mental torture. When the Opposition makes a little bit of noise, the media makes a hoopla. And, then we say, “No, no. It is only a weekend notification.”

Sir, I will give an example. I have chosen this example not from a BJP-ruled State, but deliberately Andhra Pradesh — I know there is a meeting of the NDA today — so that, maybe, they can discuss this also in the meeting. This has nothing to do with Aadhaar card, but it is relates to the implementation of Aadhaar, Mr Minister. Sir, two years ago, there was a survey in Andhra Pradesh of 85,000 ration card holders. Sixty per cent, I mean 50,000 of them, did not get their PDS ration because of certain problems. So, it is not the question of having an Aadhaar card, it is the problem which comes now. Why did these people not get their ration despite having Aadhaar cards?

There were five or six broad reasons. One, the PoS machines were not in order; two, the biometrics did not match; three, the internet connection was poor; four, the remote servers did not work; and five, the mobile network was very, very poor. These are the realities. These were the reasons why they did not get their ration. Andhra Pradesh is a very good example because fingerprint mismatches were reported there. And, remember, this was for PDS ration of the people who actually had Aadhaar cards.

Sir, let’s come to the other issue. I hope, we have already established here that it is not some upper middle class issue. It is an issue of mental torture of the poorest of the poor. There are two broad points, which I would like to make. One is on the issue of privacy and the second is on the issue of federalism, and how Aadhaar invades that. Today, Facebook or Google can tell you everything about yourself — what you eat, what music you like, what you want to do, where you are travelling, where you are eating, etc. But, those are private parties who access these data. If I have, for example, a prostate operation, God forbid, or my appendix removed and I want to make that very, very private, but that is now public knowledge. I don’t want to bring in the matrimonial here. Suppose, a young boy wants to get married and everything is settled. But, all of a sudden, somebody checks his data and that’s the end of his marriage.

So, privacy is a very, very important issue. And, there is a bigger picture to privacy. And, I think, Mr Rajeev got this point. I am not going to dwell on it. Whom is the UIDAI responsible to? Sir, it is not only the database which is a problem, but privacy is also an issue. And, I think, we can take the best example. Since we are now creating one of the largest honey pots in the world, you can extract honey from that honey pot. The world’s largest database is the US social security number. They are asking you just the number. Here, face, hands, everything is open. Even the world’s biggest system won’t share this biometrics. And, who has this data? Some of them fly-by-night companies. This data is available to everyone. This data can be sold cheap. This data can be misused.

Sir, I would like to put two specific questions to the hon. minister. I hope he addresses these in his reply. What development needs do “linking databases together” meet? Why would you want personal data, the health transaction for every individual? Twenty-one databases are being linked with NATGRID, with Aadhaar as a unique identifier. The states also have this data. And, I can tell you about my state. It has a secured system. Some states have a very secured system. Sir, a number is not a thumbprint. And, that is the big danger we are getting into here because once we make the number into a thumbprint, we are opening ourselves to two things — one, misuse of data; and, in the guise of mandatory, I can’t use a better example than what Mr Jairam used, he is putting a gun to my head.