Will making Aadhaar mandatory help at all?

There are dozens of instances of the government (and even private companies) making Aadhaar compulsory, which directly violates the Supreme Court’s orders, which only allow Aadhaar to be used on a voluntary basis for a limited number of government schemes. Apart from contradicting the SC order, Aadhaar has security and privacy problems. Aadhaar Pay is to be launched in April. CIS has shown that multiple UIDAI-approved fingerprint devices that are on the market today allow you to copy people’s fingerprints.  This means shopkeepers who collect your fingerprints for Aadhaar Pay can surreptitiously sell your fingerprints and Aadhar number, which is enough to defraud you of money.  How will you prove you didn’t authorize a transaction when it was your fingerprint?

We don’t have a privacy law in India, so there is no protection against private companies misusing Aadhaar while collecting personal data about you, and selling that data without your consent. We need a strong privacy law, and we need to stop using biometrics as a “password”.
Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director at the Centre for Internet and Society

Aadhaar would be effective if it was to be made mandatory for voting. That would reduce dependence on voter booths. Those with access to the internet could stay at home and do a simple scan and cast their votes. A big bulk of poll expenses are spent on the polling day itself. Workers and booth organisers, in the case of Odisha at least, need to be around constantly. They work in shifts and are responsible for herding rural voters to the polling booths. What also tends to happen is politicians automatically invest in booth workers from villages who have local support so that they can influence his/her close ones to vote for them. In some cases private enities lik microfinance companies who hold Aadhaar data in rural areas of customers can sell the data for a mere four per cent of the loan they gave. I do not stand with the Bengaluru tech mafias who want to make Aadhaar mandatory.
Tathagata Satpathy, MP, Odisha

Aadhaar comes with immense benefits and this is the reason there has been expansion in its uses. The new Aadhaar Act has no legal constraints for expansion. The biggest advantage is that there will be no leakages or duplication of Aadhaar identities, which seems to be a pervading problem with both PAN and ration cards.  It also helps in direct transfer of benefits. Thirdly, it makes it much easier to know who is accessing benefits. Many schemes are spread over different databases. Integrating schemes into one Aadhaar database helps understand who is accessing what benefits and whether there are any overlaps. Any argument against Aadhaar is specious and lacks substance.
GVL Narasimha Rao, BJP spokesperson

As told to Dipshikha Ghosh