AADHAR
AUTHENTICATION – POLITY
News:
Bill likely to make
Aadhaar authentication mandatory to register births and deaths
What's
in the news?
● A
Bill to amend the Registration of Birth and Death Act, which is among the 21
new Bills listed to be introduced in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament,
is likely to make Aadhaar compulsory for registration of births and deaths for
whoever has one.
Key
takeaways:
● Centre allowed the Registrar-General
of India (RGI) to perform Aadhaar authentication during
registration of births and deaths in the country.
● Currently, Aadhaar is not mandatory
for such registration. The proposed amendment to the 1969
Act will give it legal teeth
Key
features of the Bill:
● With
new amendments, the Ministry of Home Affairs is proposing to make Aadhaar mandatory to track new births and
deaths in any family.
● It
also requires States to compulsorily share data on registered births and deaths
with the RGI. However, the RGI will
maintain its own register of births and deaths.
● Presently,
States are required to only send annual statistical reports to the RGI.
● The
Bill proposes to also make birth
certificates mandatory for joining schools, registration of votes,
marriages, issuance of passports, in applications for government jobs, etc.
Role
of States:
● As
per the amendment, States will have to sign a MoU with the RGI to share the
Application Programming Interface (API) from where the data can be pulled out.
● While
all States are required to use the Civil Registration System (CRS) operated by
the RGI to issue birth and death certificates, there are some States which have
their own applications.
Significance:
● The
database will be used to update the
population register or the National Population Register (NPR) - the first
step towards the creation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) or
NRC.
○ The
NPR, which was first prepared in 2010 and revised through door-to-door
enumeration in 2015, already has a database of 119 crore residents.
● The
real-time updation of the data on births and deaths will eliminate the
requirement of such enumeration to a large extent.
● It
will also give a clear picture of population figures in real-time.
● The
database will also be used to update the electoral register, Aadhaar, ration
card, passport and driving licence databases.
Concerns:
● The
proposed amendments to a 50-year-old law will turn a simple state exercise into
a population controlling mechanism that can be used against every citizen.
● This
simple yet transformative exercise can be weaponised and used to identify
populations that are different and non-confirmative - fear of a surveillance state.
● The
linking of databases and creation of 360° profiles using Aadhaar has always
been an issue that was challenged in courts, with the SC agreeing and
recognising Indians’ fundamental right
to privacy (KS Puttaswamy case).