Years back an amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne kept the audience on the edge of their seats, when he discovered his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy. Yes, I am talking about Matt Damon in a 2002 super hit spy film named “The Bourne Identity”.Seven years hence, its Nandan Nilkanai who is all set to give more than 1.2 billion Indians their identity.
For a huge country like India, providing biometric unique ID cards is a mammoth task. Hence, it was no surprise that ex-Infosys co-chairman was appointed as the chairperson. This decision also came as welcome change as most of the key national projects were kept in political and bureaucratic hands.
The project was due for a long time as the issues related to multiple identity markers had increased significantly. Government over the years has invested significantly in issuing cards such as ration card, voter id, passport, pan card, BPL etc. This has led to operational inefficiencies.
The national ID card would be the mother of all e-governance projects. In this post, I intend to educate the reader on the benefits. Whether the ambitious 2011 deadline would be met or not is another issue.
If executed, the card has umpteen gains:
- Most important is the security benefit. The problem of illegal migration can be better tackled.
- Poverty alleviation programs such as job guarantee or food security will gain, as the actual beneficiaries can be identified.
- In case of medical emergencies, vital information regarding the patient’s blood group etc stored in the card can be used to save his or her life.
- During election, the card would eliminate the possibilities of fake votes.
- Government can save money by plugging leakages and targeting subsidies efficiently.
- A single card would replace all other identity proofs (birth certificate, pan, ration card etc) hence making life easier.
The above are few of the benefits which have been made public at the initial stages of the project. It is up to the government, to ensure that previous errors are not repeated, and the entire execution is transparent. The stakes are very high, as we are not talking about a mere smart card but about a person’s citizenship, his “Born Identity”.
