Essay - Pros & Cons of Aadhar Being Mandatory in Many Schemes | SBI PO, BOB Manipal, NICL AO 2017 Descriptive

Back in 2009, when Aadhaar was introduced by the government of India, it was a 12-digit identification tool for the citizens. The main aim of its introduction was to enhance the delivery of welfare benefits and services, as stated by a government official. But, when National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 was introduced in the parliament, the optional nature came into spotlight. Although in October 2015, Supreme Court stated that it is not mandatory for an Indian citizen to obtain an Aadhaar Card.

The NDA government has launched several schemes for the welfare of all sections of the society since its inception. Slowly and gradually, the Aadhaar linkage to all the schemes was made mandatory. At present, it is essential to have your Aadhaar linked even to your bank account. As the nature of Aadhaar card has changed from being optional to mandatory, we should know about the pros and cons of this linkage. 

Some of those are as follows:-

Pros

1)  As everything from a bank account to Provident fund and Insurance account will be linked to Aadhaar, it will make the benefits more accessible and convenient.

2)  Jan Dhan Yojana has played a vital role in the financial inclusion by providing benefits like zero balance account, RuPay Card, accident insurance, etc. and it is mandatory to hold Aadhaar card for this account.

3)  Direct Benefit Transfer is another major benefit of Aadhaar card. LPG subsidy comes directly in your bank account if your Aadhaar card is linked to it.

4)  The government has made Aadhaar card mandatory for availing pension and provident fund benefits.

5)  Holding an Aadhaar card saves you from the lengthy process of Passport and Voter ID application.

Cons

1)  Having everything linked with one single ID makes it vulnerable to misuse. Privacy concerns face a major threat.

2)  Aadhaar linkage has made it easy for the hackers to get into your account and swipe off all your savings.

3)  Considering the fact that a major portion of our population is still illiterate and living in rural areas, Aadhaar linkage still remains an uneasy and tricky task.

Aadhaar has emerged as the new face of centralized identification system but certain heights still remain untouched. However, if the government tackle the issues and gains full cooperation of the citizens, Aadhaar will make the centralised identification strong and reliable to say the least.

Making Aadhaar Mandatory: Benefits and Drawbacks 

Aadhar is a 12 digit number that serves as a unique identifier for Indian citizens and residents. It was introduced by the UPA government in 2010, with the intentions of making subsidy and benefit deliverance more effective and eliminate leakages in the process. 

Unique Identification Authority Of India (UIDAI) is a statutory authority established on 12 July 2016 by the Government of India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, under the provisions of the Adhaar Act,2016.

Adhaar is the world’s largest biometric identification system with over 1.113 billion enrolled members as of 31 March 2017.

Advantages:

The biggest impact will be on people who rely on food subsidies. To be more specific, any government benefits or subsidies related to food grains under the National Food Security Act of 2013 will now require the beneficiary to hold an Aadhaar card.

Good Governance: Aadhaar is an important tool of good governance, as if each person has an unique number then fake accounts with which government subsidies are availing will be removed. Also government stated that 49,000 crores is saved with this implementation.

Illegal Migrants: With the implementation of Aadhaar, we can detect illegal migrants residing in many parts of our country and can spread the government schemes to the deserved.

Through an amendment to the tax proposals in the Finance Bill of the Budget for 2017-18, the government has made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to curb tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.

The Aadhaar act has clear restrictions on data sharing. No data download is permitted, search is not allowed.

The system of payments making their way to people’s bank accounts directly was pursued with the goal of preventing fraud and corruption that otherwise took place and the World Bank too has praised the Aadhaar system for this reason.

According to Nandan Nilekani, the creator of the Aadhaar system, trust and verifiability are important for any business. Hence, the Aadhaar system’s positives will not only be limited to the government, but spread to the private business sector too as with an Aadhaar backed identity, banks will be more confident in giving out loans and businesses, both big and small more secure in knowing who they’re working with.

Countries like Russia , Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia have evinced interest in Aadhaar and World Bank is acting as a felicitator for this process.

Drawbacks:

With the compulsory implementation of Aadhaar on the citizens , in the coming days our country will become surveillance state , also Constitutionally protect Right to Privacy will become redundant.

In the Aadhaar act, there are no provisions for the protection of one’s privacy/information, and the data stored is vulnerable to cyber theft.

Most importantly Aadhar bill is passed as a money bill by which UIDAI will not be held as a responsible organisation.

Some people can misuse Aadhaar card as there is a provision of changing the address.

Aadhaar card alone is not used as a identification proof like Ration card, PAN Card etc., as One Time Password is used for the authentication of Aadhar Card.

Another major concern is about the cyber infrastructure that UIDAI has, where citizen’s privacy is the utmost important issue.

Furthermore, there is the question of whether or not the government’s bureaucracy is equipped to handle something like the Aadhaar database and this is pertinent as the incapability to do so will only make it easier for hackers to target the Aadhaar system.

A person reliant on Aadhaar for their benefits or subsidies, and, if permitted, having their bank account linked with the Aadhaar system, would be left toothless to carry out daily activities until the matter was sorted out.

Conclusion:

While there are many positives that a system like the Aadhaar system will have for India, the limitations and flaws should also be kept in mind rather than a forced push for it. Aadhaar does make managing benefits easier for India but making it mandatory to avail benefit makes the Aadhaar database a prime target for exploitation, increasing the security risk behind it.