Exigencias de aislamiento acústico

The second case study of a national ID system is India. Within the last several years, India embarked on its first effort—an extremely ambitious one—to establish a national database of all citizens and distribute national identity cards to more than a billion people.¹¹⁸ Originally conceived as the multipurpose national identity card (MNIC), it was envisioned as a national register of citizens, a national register of non-citizens, and a national register of residency. India’s government initiated a “pilot project” to introduce the MNIC in select areas of the country in 2009.¹¹⁹ The program, known as Aadhaar, or “foundation” in Hindi, began enrolling individuals in 2010 with the first Aadhaar number being issued on September 29, 2010.¹²⁰

114 Edgar A. Whitley, “The Identity Project: An Assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill and Its Implications,” 2005, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29117/.

115 BBC, “In Full.”

116 Ibid.

117 Ibid.

118 Taha Mehmood, “India’s New ID Card: Fuzzy Logics, Double Meanings and Ethnic Ambiguities,”

in Playing the Identity Card Surveillance, Security and Identification in Global Perspective, ed. Colin J Bennett and David Lyon (London; New York: Routledge, 2008).

119 Ibid., 114.

120 Unique Identification Authority of India, “Aadhaar Press Release October 2012,” October 2012.

The program consists of the collection of 10 prints and iris scans of citizens, and associates them with a unique identifier into a “massive database.”¹²¹ Ultimately, 1.2 billion Indian citizens will be issued a unique identifier, a random 12-digit number, by mail. Passports, driver’s licenses, ration cards, and government health-insurance cards could either have the numbers printed on them or embedded electronically.¹²² The program captures a mix of biometric data—digital photos, fingerprints, and iris scans.

The program also collects a substantial amount of biographic information to include names, addresses, genders, dates of birth, and other information, such as caste and religion. It was decided to err on the side of collecting too much versus too little information because the enrollment process was relatively lengthy and only one opportunity was really available to collect the information.¹²³

At the same time, India had embarked on a parallel effort to create a National Population Register while issuing the identity cards, or MNICs, to the citizens of India.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) determined that the efforts should fall within a new entity, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), within the Planning Commission. According to the UIDAI, as of June 2013, over 360 million enrollments in the Aadhaar had been completed, and India was predicted to be on track to complete 600 million enrollments by 2014.¹²⁴

Several factors motivated the effort to establish India’s national identity program.

Those factors included enhancing security, gaining efficiencies in benefit distribution, and enhancing economic opportunities for people lacking access financial systems. The initial impetus for the pilot was the recommendation of the GoM that had been formed in 2000 on the recommendation of the Kargil Review Committee. The committee’s purpose was to study the causes of the Kargil War between Pakistan and India, which for India,

121 Amol Sharma, “India Launches Project to ID 1.2 Billion People,” Wall Street Journal, sec.

Technology, September 29, 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870465210457549 3490951809322.html.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid.

124 Unique Identity Authority of India, “APNA AADHAAR,” June 2013, at p. 6. (the monthly newsletter describes the number of enrollments as over 36 “crore.” Crore is the Indian term for 10 million, thus 36 crore is the equivalent of 360 million.

was a “big event” similar to 9/11 in the United States.¹²⁵ One proposal was to take steps to issue ID cards to border villagers in certain vulnerable areas on a priority basis. The Indian government set up a pilot project in 2003 for the introduction of the MNIC in select districts.¹²⁶

In addition to the security related concerns, India has also been motivated by reasons related to economic development, and the efficient and secure distribution of benefits. According to the Wall Street Journal’s treatment of the issue.

The country’s leaders are pinning their hopes on the program to solve development problems that have persisted despite fast economic growth.

They say unique ID numbers will help ensure that government welfare spending reaches the right people, and will allow hundreds of millions of poor Indians to access services like banking for the first time. The Indian government is expected to spend as much as $250 billion over five years on programs aimed at the poor, including subsidies for food, diesel, fertilizer and jobs. But 40% of the benefits, as the system now stands, will go to the wrong people or to “ghosts” with fake identification papers, according to a report by brokerage firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.

Today’s ration cards, for example, are issued on paper, and are relatively easy to forge or doctor.¹²⁷

The effort is acknowledged to have a role in reducing fraud, but India has emphasized its role in economic development, noting that it has the potential to bring into the financial system the roughly two-thirds of Indian adults who do not have bank accounts.¹²⁸ Leaders of the effort believe that it can help the poor, who often have few or no documents to prove who they are or where they live. “You have a whole mass of people who are shut out of society. A lack of identity is a big source of exclusion. You’re giving them a key to social services.”¹²⁹

India’s efforts were facilitated to a large degree by a unique partnership between the government and a group of successful Indian entrepreneurs who, in a sense, applied

125 Mehmood, “India’s New ID Card,” 114.

126 Ibid.

127 Sharma, “India Launches Project to ID 1.2 Billion People.”

128 Ibid.

129 Ibid.

their tech savvy to launch a type of national service project. To lead the project, India’s former Prime Minister selected Nandan Nilekani, formerly CEO of Infosys Technologies Ltd., who had helped pioneer offshore technology services. Nilekani, in turn, recruited fellow Indians with ties to the global technology industry, and asked tech companies, such as Intel, Google, Oracle Corp., and Yahoo, in November 2009, “to send Indian-origin engineers to contribute to the cause, either on paid sabbatical or as volunteers.

More than 20 people joined the effort.”¹³⁰

Several have leveled criticisms of the Aadhaar system, with some asserting that in India, individuals can prove their identities in a multitude of ways and that having so many options has made establishing their identity confusing. Critics note that the reliability of Aadhaar to establish a citizen’s identity is under a cloud as the card itself is not necessarily proof of citizenship.¹³¹ People who are not themselves citizens can obtain the card as it is compulsory to access various programs, such as obtaining driver’s licenses, opening bank accounts, and obtaining certificates related to birth, death, marriage, property registration, domicile, and income certificates.¹³²

Due to the broad range of transactions to which Aadhaar will be tied, critics also contend that it is not a voluntary system as the government has asserted. They note that while signing up is technically voluntary, any government agency or company will be allowed to require a unique ID as proof of identity. Critics assert, therefore, that it amounts to a de facto mandate for people to enroll.¹³³ They also express concern that it could be used by businesses or the government to discriminate against individuals in the provision of services provided, and also note that it could also be a huge source for data

130 Sharma, “India Launches Project to ID 1.2 Billion People.”

131 Mail Online, “India’s Identity Crisis: Between Aadhaar, Passport, PAN and NPR, Why Are We Still Struggling to Prove Our Identities?,” March 22, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/

indianews/article-2297714/Indias-identity-crisis-Between-Aadhaar-passport-PAN-NPR-struggling-prove-identities.html.

132 Neha Pushkarna, “India’s Identity Crisis: Between Aadhaar, Passport, PAN and NPR, Why Are We Still Struggling to Prove Our Identities? Capital Hopes to Do Everything with Aadhaar,” Mail Online, March 22, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2297714/Indias-identity-crisis-Between-Aadhaar-passport-PAN-NPR-struggling-prove-identities.html.

133 Sharma, “India Launches Project to ID 1.2 Billion People.”

mining.¹³⁴ Yet, many of the people for whom it would seem that obtaining such document would be most difficult, express the benefits of the system related to the efficient and secure distribution of goods and services. It is hoped that the IDs would keep people from cheating the welfare system and obtaining food rations for which they do not qualify. “It will take fraud out of the government schemes,” said Mr. Anjaiah, a citizen who relies on subsidies to feed his family. “Then it will be guaranteed I get what I deserve.¹³⁵

One issue that does not seem to be of concern with the program is the ability of the system to establish one-to-one correspondence accurately between real people and electronic identities on the CIDR (central ID repository). The government embarked on a proof of concept trial in 2010, and study of efficacy of the system after the enrollment of 84 million residents. The fact that both fingerprints and irises were being captured appeared to significantly increase the levels of accuracy in enrolling residents.¹³⁶