Why in the news?
A bill has been tabled in the parliament
seeking to amend the Registration of Birth and Death Act,1969 making Aadhar
authentication mandatory to register births and deaths.
What are the existing provisions?
1.
Aadhar was not
mandatory to register births and deaths.
2. The states need not
share data on registered births and deaths and instead only send annual
statistical reports to the RGI (Registrar-General of India).
What are the proposed amendments?
1.
Aadhaar to be made
compulsory to register births and deaths.
2.
States shall
mandatorily share data with the RGI functioning under the Union Home Ministry.
3.
States have to Sign
MoU with RGI to share data with the latter through Application Programme
Interface (API)
4.
The data shall be
used to update National Population Register, electoral register, aadhar, ration
card, passport and driving licence databases.
What are the benefits of the bill?
1. Easy enumeration of
population data
a)
National Population
Register (NPR) has a database of 119Cr residents and its enumeration is a large
exercise.
b)
Aadhar
authenticated births and deaths registeres will eliminate the need for such
enumeration.
2. The database
linkage to other databases such as electoral register, Ration card, etc., can
help in convenient entitlement of benefits.
What are the concerns associated with the
bill?
1. Each individual has
the right to documentation of their identity (a birth certificate or other
forms of identification) inorder to lead a dignified life. But this can be used
to identify populations that are different and non-confirmative and treat them
with neglect or exploitation.
2. Apprehension of
surveillance of the state on its population, as RGI functions under the Union
Home Ministry and the birth-death database will be linked to other databases as
well. This raise concerns over database linkage to NATGRID (National
Intelligence Grid), National Population Register and National Register of
Citizens.
3. Though the Supreme
Court noted that Indians’ fundamental right to privacy can be restricted on
National security grounds, lack of privacy law or surveillance law shall give
no space to hold the executive accountable.
4. Concern that
information submitted for a specific purpose will be utilised for a non-consent
secondary purpose.
The purpose of birth certificates is to
prove nationality or at the maximum used to prove lineage to a parent. The data
might also be used for various other purposes due to database linkages.
