Making Aadhaar Mandatory: Benefits and Drawbacks

Not secure

1. Leaked into websites

A security researcher brought to the notice of the authorities that the Aadhaar demographic data of over five lakh minors was leaked on a website. The website was immediately closed after the report but this shows that the database is not all that secure. If it could be leaked on a website, it could be misused anywhere and in any manner.

2. Suvidha infoserve

Unique Identity Authority of India had itself complained with the Delhi Police against Axis Bank Limited, Suvidha Infoserve, which is a business correspondent with Axis, and design provider eMudhra of performing multiple Aadhaar transactions using stored biometrics. Thus is in violation of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, which prohibits the storage of such data.

3. You won't be notified

The people whose information was used by these companies were not informed of it. The Aadhaar act does not have any provision for this matter. You cannot approach a court if your data was misused in any manner. According to Section 47 (1) of the Aadhaar Act, the Unique Identification Authority of India has the exclusive power to make complaints in case of any violation or breach of privacy.

4. No RTI card

You cannot even play the Right to Information Act card in this matter. There was RTI filed but the Unique Identification Authority of India refused to share any information in this regard. So your information is compromised and you are not even aware of it. You cannot find out, you cannot question; there is no way you can take it to the courts.

5. No oversight mechanism or bounty reporting

There should be a reward for those who could find fault in the Aadhaar database system. This would have encouraged vulnerability testing to prevent hacks and exploitive acts. However, there is absolutely no regard for these measures which therefore decreases the security far more. In fact, the opposite is possible here. An entrepreneur who published an article on the flaws of the system was immediately arrested.

6. Third party involvement

Though enrolment is done by government and public sector agencies, they hire private players to collect demographic and biometric information. Enrolment agencies are not allowed to outsource work but they can hire enrolment operators and supervisors through third parties. This is where security gets compromised.

Very secure:

1. Open source technology

According to government sources, the Aadhaar platform is built mostly on open source technologies, with propriety technologies being used only where necessary. This means that no private contractors may sell/steal the data.

2. Proper security measures

Government sources also claim that the UIDAI has established two large-scale data centres to ensure complete security of data and applications, and it regularly conducts audits by reputed third party agencies to keep its systems and processes up to date. This ensures that there is no glitch in the system and hence no scope for breaches.

3. High encryption

Encryption uses highest available public key cryptography encryption, i.e. PKI-2048 and AES-256 with each data record having a built-in mechanism to detect any tampering. This ensures complete privacy and hence there is no need to worry about a breach.

4. Multiple vendors:

Before adopting any propriety software for biometrics, the design approach followed by the UIDAI is said to have multiple vendors in an architectural layer, with a payment model put in place such that the vendors are incentivised to improve quality, accuracy and speed. These vendors or their services can be replaced if they do not meet stringent service level agreements. More than 100 different companies are involved in the foundation, so that domination doesn't become a problem.

Government sources have rubbished the report of data leak from the system. Apt measures will be taken to improve and the culprits will be punished. Regarding the safety of the system, it could do better with few changes.

Benefits:.

1) Use of Aadhaar reduces the cost of identifying persons and provides increased transparency to the government in implementation of its schemes.

2) Aadhaar Card is used as the major document of proof when opening a bank account under the Pradhan Mantri Jhan Dhan Yojana in the nation. The bank account comes with a great set of benefits like free zero balance saving account, RuPay Card, accident insurance.

3) Aadhar Card linked bank account will get their set of LPG Subsidy directly accredited in the bank account.

4) For opening a bank account multiple documents are required. Now, Aadhaar card has solved this problem.

5) It will impact nearly 1 crore workers under MGNREGA scheme, who use Aadhaar to withdraw their wages every month, and nearly 30, 00, 000 pensioners.

6) Aadhaar Card will relieve you of the lengthy procedure while obtaining Passport. An applicant who uses Aadhaar Card as part of the procedure can get the Passport in just 10 days.

7) Aadhaar number shall also help to eliminate the duplicate cards and fake cards for non-existent beneficiaries in the government schemes.

8) Aadhaar shall be able to reduce the involvement of middlemen who siphon off part of the subsidy.

9) Every Voter ID will be linked to Aadhaar Card in a bid to eliminate the bogus voters.

Drawbacks:.

1) The Supreme court had itself asserted in 2013 that Aadhaar should be voluntary, not mandatory.

2) As Aadhaar Project is being handled by private companies. So, it might lead to data erosion to the foreign body.

3) It demands Indians to link their bank account with the aadhar card, it can lead to some serious problem, if users bank details are leaked or misused in any way.

4) As Aadhaar is managed and operated by Supreme Authority of the country, it can lead to centralization problems as the authority is free to manipulate & create new orthodox rules which might affect Aadhaar card holders and Nation as a whole.

5) The Supreme Court indefinitely extended the March 31, 2018 deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to bank accounts, mobile phones and tatkal passports until a five-judge constitution bench announces its judgement on the validity of the biometric authentication programme.

6) The supreme court has said that the government cannot insist on mandatory Aadhaar linkages " unless it is for the express purpose of subsidies.

7) Aadhaar will still be a must for social schemes and subsidies as under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act.

The idea of giving a unique identification number to every India citizen was first given by the former UPA government which was later implemented by the NDA government on the name of Aadhar card. Since Modi came in power he has been making a continuous effort to streamline the financial transactions in India through different government schemes.

By making Aadhar mandatory for most of the government schemes Indian government had saved about USD 9 million in 2016 from getting transferred to ghost citizens, said by Arun Jaitley.

Aadhar database also helped in solving missing and robbery case by using biometric data stored in Aadhar.

As Aadhar is a nationally recognized card and is linked to other identification cards like bank passbook, passport, and PAN card it has eased the document handling.

Aadhar has also made it possible to seal the Benami Properties.

The advantages of Aadhar in the reduction of corruption of USD 9 million as also been praised by World Bank in 2016 and world bank has advised other countries to replicate the same model.

The only concern or failure of Aadhar is the protection of Aahar database. As online hackers are getting smarter day by day it is important for the government agency to protect this database.

Uncovered story by the Journalist of THE TRIBUNE revealed how in just 500 Rs anyone can get the personal information of an individual.

Aadhar card duplicity is also another concern, the same journalist revealed that by an extra amount of 300 Rs can get you a duplicate Aadhar. The report also claimed that the data had been hacked from one of the Rajasthan government sites.

This show insensitivity of government, data leak of MS Dhoni on the tweeter is also another fault from the government.

The case of Bhartiya Airtel is also an eye catcher where users bank account were opened without their concern by using Aadhar database.

In an RTI, UIDAI revealed that there are also most 210 government sites which can easily provide you with Aadhar database.

All these case and many more make Aadhar highly insecure.

However, government actions like canceling of banking license of Bhartiya airtel and penalizing the hackers show government concern for the data leak.

Supreme Court verdict clearly shows that though Aadhar has many advantages, the pontential risk of data leak overweight the advantages this gave the birth of Virtual Identification Number which will help in utilizing Aadhar in a positive way.

Making Aadhar card mandatory has huge benefits.

It reduces the amount of paperwork needed to obtain services like opening of bank account, mobile number, property registration etc.

It helps in plugging the leaks while distribution of ration or subsidies as a person is alloted the benefits only as per his Aadhar. This disallows middle man to siphon off the benefits etc.

It helps in identification of all citizens and also enables to spot out any criminal or terrorist living among us.

However, the disadvantages of making Aadhar mandatory is that not all citizens have Aadhar card with them. People from the north east or in remote areas do not have Aadhar cards with them and will be left out in government welfare schemes. Poor or needy people also might not have an aadhar card.

The contract for registration for Aadhar is awarded to private companies who can misuse people's information or extract money from people for Aadhar related services.

The collection of Aadhar data and storage incurs huge expenditure on the part of the government which is paid by people in form of taxes. The expense in Aadhar services could be utilised for other beneficial schemes like medical support, education or construction of proper roads, ports etc.

Also making of Aadhar mandatory can result in Mass surveillance of citizens by the government.

To conclude one can say that Aadhar should be mandatory for providing useful services like lpg or farmer's subsidy or Jan Dhan Yojna, pension or ration but it should be made optional for services like Telecom, education, bank account.

Hello everyone greetings!

I think it is very interesting topic for discussion. But I want to tell you about the benefits of Aadhar.

First things is by making Aadhar mandatory our government are trying to finish the corruption so it is a very good move of the government to connect Aadhar with the things like bank accounts gas connection, pan card voter I'd, so just to finish the danger disease Aadhar linking is a very good option.

The second thing people can use it as one and only one identity which includes all the details of the person. People can access their bank account by using their Aadhar so this is very beneficial to all the people this thing saves their time and many other difficulties. Not only bank accounts you can book your LPG cylinder by using your Aadhar number no need to go to agencies and book your LPG cylinder.

As we Aadhar is the unique identity of any person so it is very pertinent to do it mandatory in all type of work that a common people needs.

And no one can do any Fraud with the system. Mandating Aadhar is helpful in identifying the person this is the exact person. Is this person of my country we can check it just by seeing their Aadhar no need to other documents because if any authority wants to access all the details they can do it very easily just because of Aadhar is linked everywhere.

No one can make the government fool by doing fraud things.

So in my opinion, keeping all these things in mind I can surely say that making Aadhar mandatory is a good move of our Indian government.

Good Morning everyone,

As we all know, Aadhar card has both benefits and its drawbacks.

Benefits:

1. First of all, it is used as an id proof for every citizen of India, through which government can keep all records of a person including their address, family, bank accounts, numbers, etc.

2. In case of any alert while terrorist attacks, any person from outside our nation can be identified.

3. It will help in the population count.

4. It revealed the burden of carrying all the documents.

5. In any case of accidents or crime, the identity of the person can be easily identified.

Drawbacks:

1. The biggest drawback of mandatory of Aadhar card is that some people are misusing the illiterate or poor people who do not have knowledge about Aadhar card, by using their name and identity and making fake Aadhar cards without their knowledge.

As according to a survey held in New Delhi city, the no of applicants of Aadhar card id is much more in no. Then the total population in the city.

2. In many rural areas, many people are not having their Aadhar cards, but are the citizens of India, so mandatory of Aadhar will create circumstances for those people.

3. Illiterate and poor people do not information on the purpose of Aadhar card.

4. Security of Aadhar cards can be easily breached by hackers and the private information of the people can be leaked and misused.

5. Every people in the nation can be tracked by the Government Of India. Corrupted officials can misuse it to know the whereabouts of anyone.

Hello everyone,

I am here to give my opinion on given topic that is making Aadhar mandatory: Benefits and drawbacks.

Firstly I will discuss about merits.

One nation one ID card hence it become very convenient to carry only one identity card throughout the country.

No tension to carry number of cards like voting card, driving licence, PAN card.

Anyone can have aadhar card even childrens too earlier above 18 years old people can have identity card like voting card.

All other cards and bank accounts are linked with Aadhar card so fewer chances of black money.

We can do transaction by using Aadhar card and our biometric hence no need to carry a number of ATM cards.
Previously people are used to making fake identity cards but due to Aadhar card we can't make 2 identity cards so, transparency is maintained.
Our all personal and income-related database is linked with Aadhar card so none can fool the government.
By making Aadhar mandatory there is transparency in fund transfer of different government schemes no middle person is there so direct benefit get to the user.
Now there are some demerits too.
One of the most important issue with Aadhar database is the leaking of personal information.
Some persons biometric doesn't work after some time then he or she may feel it problematic.
Fraud peoples can easily make a fool to some illiterate or careless educated persons too.
But we can sort out this problem by becoming more alert.
So overall it is a good decision.

Thanks.

UIDAI has made an unprecedented effort to compile holistic data of an individual in a single document named AADHAAR which has become a mandatory document in every step in our life. Govt has made it mandatory to link AADHAAR no everywhere, from bank a/c to obtain basic services like LPG connection, purchase of sim card or any application of exam-anyone can name it. Surely it is a comprehensive step to bring citizen under one canopy of unique identification no as well as to save government expenses from mismanagement of funds. But to what extent the data stored in AADHAAR are secure. Our data storage vulnerability recently has been evinced by the leakage of AADHAAR data. If that happens, then the sensitive data can be misused to make a fraudulent transaction and much more malevolent work. After all, An individual description is his/her privacy and it is ones right and leakage of such data leads to a violation of the privacy of a citizen. So, I think to remove all such bottlenecks is the first and foremost duty of govt before making it a mandatory document.

On the other hand, many people in rural area are yet to obtain the AADHAAR. So if anyone wants to open a bank a/c or a govt scheme, what would happen to him/her?Is his eligibility to be discarded due to lack of this AADHAAR?It should not happen. So making it flexible in case of rural and poor people is also necessary.

As we all know, Aadhar is a unique identification ID issued to the Indian people by the government of India. Like other things it too has got some benefits and drawbacks.

BENEFITS.

-Earlier we had to carry multiple documents to confirm our identity but thanks to Aadhar cards as they have played a phenomenal role in reducing this burden as it contains all our biometrics, retinal scan and other required details.

-As it contains biometric details thus it can't be copied or faked easily for negative purposes.

-Earlier, it was observed that opening a bank account or buying a sim card seemed like a complicated task due to the involvement of long documentation process but now we need only the Aadhar card and the job is done immediately without taking too much time.

Drawbacks:

-Since past few months it has been observed that the government has made it mandatory to link up your bank account, PAN and others with Aadhar creating a nuanced problem and giving rise to jitters among people that their data might be stolen as all the details are now stored online.

-Aadhar here now plays a role of the key to the door i.e. If someone successfully hacks into your aadhar details he or she might gain full access to your bank details which may be dangerous.

Good afternoon.

First of all, I am thankful to you for giving me the opportunity to discuss on this amazing topic.

If we think about benefits and drawbacks for making Aadhaar mandatory, I can say it has more benefit as compared to demerits.

Government of India announced that Aadhaar is mandatory for all the Indian citizens, Aadhaar card is the combination of all the documentary evidence that means it is linked to the other documents such as pan card, voter id, passport, bank passbook etc, any person don't need to carry all other documents with him.

Secondly, if we think about it's security then I can say it is more secured in comparison to other document because it includes person's biometric information like fingerprints, eye scan etc. So that any fraud can't be able to misuse. But any other document does not have such facility.

If any one try to login then a massage prompt to the users registered mobile number with an OTP, and he will be notified shortly but in any other document that may not have such type of security.

On the other sense, I can say, In India there still many peoples are uneducated, that's why they can easily lost their money, due to the lack of knowledge.