Usha Ramanathan works on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights. She writes and speaks on issues that include the nature of law, the Bhopal Gas Disaster, mass displacement, eminent domain, civil liberties including the death penalty, beggary, criminal law, custodial institutions, the environment, and the judicial process. She has been tracking and engaging with the UID project and has written and debated extensively on the subject. In July-September 2013, she wrote a 19-part series on the UID project that was published in The Statesman, a national daily.

Her work draws heavily upon non-governmental experience in its encounters with the state; a 6 year stint with a law journal (Supreme Court Cases) as reporter from the Supreme Court; and engagement with matters of law and public policy.

She was a member of: the Expert Group on Privacy set up by the Planning Commission of India which gave in its report in October 2012; a committee (2013-14) set up in the Department of Biotechnology to review the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012; and the Committee set up by the Prime Minister's Office (2013-14) to study the socio-economic status of tribal communities which gave its report to the government in 2014.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

10 - Too many unanswered questions on UID: expert - The Hindu




BANGALORE, December 18, 2010

Too many unanswered questions on UID: expert


SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

‘No debate on its potential for tracking individuals, institutions'

Doubts arise: The UID project is being pushed without Parliament's nod or a privacy bill policy in place. — File photo: M.A. Sriram

While the Unique Identification (UID) project is being pushed on the plank of ensuring better delivery of services to the poor, the potential it holds for tracking, profiling and tagging individuals and institutions is not even being publicly debated, warned Usha Ramanathan, law researcher who works on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights.

Speaking on the implications of the UID project, organised by ‘Say no to UID Campaign' here on Friday, she said that the exercise would eventually allow convergence of data from various agencies — such as National Intelligence Grid, Public Information Infrastructure Project and the National Population Register — making it a huge data pool of information with no clarity on the logic and objective of such a mammoth exercise.

No groundwork

The project was being pushed without Parliament's nod, a feasibility study on collection of biometric data on such a large scale or even a privacy bill policy in place, she said, adding that UID Authority was systematically blocking information by refusing to answer any questions.

Ms. Ramanathan said that the field of information collection was being increased clandestinely, and there was no limit to the area of inquiry. Mobile phone numbers and email ids were being sought in some places as “voluntary information”, but people were often not told that they were not voluntary, she said.

Corporate interest

The exercise, she said, was also providing a great opportunity to the corporate sector, especially the biometric industry.

Some of the companies being brought in for information collection were of highly questionable credentials, she added.

The data gathering through the UID project had the potential “to destroy democracy as we know it now” and “change the equation between the people and the state,” said Ms. Ramanathan.

‘UID Authority is not answering any questions'
‘Data gathering of UID has potential to destroy democracy'
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