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

68 - SEMINAR ON UID PROGRAMME - The Hindu


SEMINAR ON UID PROGRAMME


A talk on ‘Interrogating the UID and the National Population Register’ will be delivered by legal expert Usha Ramanathan at Asian College of Journalism, Taramani, at 5.30 p.m. on Thursday 7th August 2014



INTERROGATING THE UID AND THE NATIONAL POPULATION REGISTER

Or why we need to be wary of the hidden agenda in official schemes for creating a citizens’ roster through invasive data harvesting, using ‘unique’ identity markers like fingerprints, iris and mucous membranes

Talk by eminent legal expert

USHA RAMANATHAN

Thursday, August 7, 2014, 5:30 - 6:15 pm

at the

Asian College of Journalism
(The Lecture Hall, II Floor)
Second Main Road
Taramani
Chennai-6000 113

Eminent lawyer GEETA RAMASESHAN will chair the talk and
moderate the discussion that follows

ALL ARE WELCOME

 In the past few years, we have been told that we must all line up and have our fingerprints and irises scanned. We have been told this is the way to root out corruption; prevent leakage of public resources; protect ourselves against terrorism. The claim is, this way the poor will get money into their accounts, subsidies will be reduced and even citizenship will be secured by identifying illegal migrants.The three words that have been breezily used are ‘Unique’, which biometrics is supposed to achieve; ‘Universal’, which will pull every individual on to a common data base, and ‘Ubiquitous’, by which the identity number will be applied and recognized across platforms like income tax, health records, bank accounts, passport, travel and credit card transactions, rent, sale, marriage, employment, school and college records.

We have also been assured that the UID number never dies. Not even when we do.

Is this really a single-window cure for all that ails our system?

Will all our problems melt away with the creation of a `unique identity'?

Is this data-aggregator path the way to definitive citizenship?

The talk will interrogate the scheme to uncover its true intent. Please do come and join the conversation.

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Dr. Usha Ramanathan is an independent law researcher working on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights. She studied law at Madras University, the University of Nagpur and Delhi University.

Ms. Ramanathan is a nationally reputed writer and speaker on issues that include the Bhopal Gas Disaster, mass displacement, eminent domain, civil liberties, beggary, criminal law, custodial institutions, the environment and judicial process. She has been monitoring and engaging with the UID project, and has written and debated extensively on the subject. Her work draws heavily upon non-governmental experience in its encounters with the state, a six year stint with a law journal as reporter from the Supreme Court, and engaging with matters of public policy. Some of her writings can be found at http://www.ielrc.org/.
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