[bestbits] Biometric IDs & Right to Life + Worldbank's baseless figures on Aadhaar savings

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear all,

Just want to share a paper & a report related to India's biometric ID
project .


1.IIT Delhi Professor Reetika Khera's academic  paper examining the
evidence on aadhaar in welfare programmes:*The ‘right to privacy’ challenge
to the Aadhaar project has received a lot of attention, but the ‘right to
life’ challenge to it has thus far not been adequately highlighted. *This
paper attempts to fill that gap.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3045235

Impact of Aadhaar in Welfare Programmes

Abstract

Aadhaar, India's ambitious biometric ID project, was portrayed as one that
would enhance India's welfare efforts by promoting inclusion and reducing
corruption. From being a voluntary ID, it has become de facto compulsory
for most welfare programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act (NREGA) and the Public Distribution System (PDS). Despite early
warnings of its limited role in its stated objected, successive
government's have ramped up its use. Using a variety of data sources, this
paper reviews the impact of Aadhaar on welfare programmes. Far from being
inclusive and reducing corruption, Aadhaar is becoming a tool of exclusion,
with little evidence of an impact on corruption in NREGA, PDS and pensions,
etc. The government's estimates of savings are examined, but these do not
stand scrutiny. What passes as 'savings' is often the result of denial of
legal entitlements for lack of Aadhaar. In that sense, the Aadhaar project
undermines the right to life.

2. World Bank report on digital dividends estimated that Aadhaar has the
potential to save $11 billion in subsidies every year. This  has repeatedly
been used by the Government of India to justify the programme.  This
article scrutinizes this claim and finds *World Bank was quite clearly
mistaken and the claim is baseless. *

*The Curious Case of the World Bank and Aadhaar Savings*

https://thewire.in/183961/the-curious-case-of-the-world-bank-and-aadhaar-savings/
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