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

31 - UID has no legal sanctity, says lawyer-activist - The Hindu



UID has no legal sanctity, says lawyer-activist

Special Correspondent

‘Iris scanning adopted for the UID project is flawed as the iris keeps changing’

Discussion:(From left) Lawyer-activist Usha Ramanathan, geographer Anant Maringanti, researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society Elonnai Hickok, and RTI activist Col. Matthew Thomasat a seminar on the Unique ID project of the Unique Identification Authority of India, in Bangalore on Saturday.— Photo: Ishaan Raghunandan


Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the UID project have no legal sanctity, said independent law researcher and human rights activist Usha Ramanathan on Saturday.

Speaking at a workshop on the UID, the National Population Register and Governance, organised by the Centre for Internet and Society, Ms. Ramanathan said the UIDAI has “no clear legal status.” “The fact that there are no limits placed on its functioning is deeply worrying,” she remarked.

Ms. Ramanathan pointed out that an agency, which was created by a mere executive order in 2009, now “owns” the data obtained from Indian citizens. Although the UIDAI has said enrolment is not mandatory, a host of providers of essential services – from ration shops to LPG distributors and now even railway tickets – require Aadhaar authentication.

The idea of using biometric validation of identities was adopted despite there “being no evidence of its viability anywhere in the world,” Ms. Ramanathan said. In fact, several reports have established the failure of biometrics as a means of validating identities, she claimed. The iris scanning, which has been adopted for the UID project is flawed because the iris does change over time, she said.

Anant Maringati, a geographer from Hyderabad, said the “positive” potential of the project have been usurped by entities such as microfinance institutions, which sue them to track those who have defaulted on loans.

‘An agency, which was created by a mere executive order in 2009, now owns the data obtained from Indian citizens’

‘Although the UIDAI has said enrolment is not mandatory, providers of essential services seek Aadhaar authentication’
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