National Identity Cards

National Identity Cards


A number of countries in the world have evolved elaborate systems to establish a National Identification Number1 for each individual of their country. This unique identification number attempts to track him by his name, date and place of birth, his sex, his permanent or temporary residence, his socio-economic status, his religion, ethnicity etc for the purpose of work/ occupation, taxation, delivering government benefits and health care among other things. Most countries initially used these numbers for a singular purpose but over time these numbers have been used for a number of other purposes also. This unique number for every individual has immensely helped the law enforcement agencies in conducting surveillance, locating criminals and placing restrictions on the movement of criminals in society. The revenue authorities have also made use of this identity to make financial transactions more transparent and thereby increase tax collections in the country.

History

Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce the system of a Unique Identity Number in the year 1947 covering the entire population. The basic objective was to enforce and tighten the tax collection process. Later on, a number of other countries such as Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, People’s Republic of China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, UK and US established a kind of national identification number for their citizens. A number of these countries, however, insist that a person must have an Identity Card after attaining a certain age. Some countries like Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland however do not make it compulsory to have an identity card for all citizens.

India

India has had over time different kinds of identification systems as the Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Income Tax department, the Voters Identity Card issued by the Election Commission of India and the Driving License issued by the Motor Licensing authorities to ensure foolproof identification and ensure accountability amongst the citizens for their activities. India presently does not have an elaborate or well-established system of National Identity Cards for all its citizens. A pilot project is however underway since 2003 for the issue of Multi Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC)2 to all citizens above the age of 18 years. The objective of such a card is to create a national identity for each and every Indian citizen, to enhance national security and to facilitate e-governance.

Multi Purpose National Identity Cards

The concept of MNIC was initiated on the basis of recommendations made in a Report prepared by Group of Ministers3 for reforming the National Security System. This GOM was set up in April 2000 under the Chairmanship of LK Advani to review the national security system and a report was submitted to the PM on 26 February 2001. Chapter V of this report talked about the necessity of providing MNIC to all citizens in view of increasing illegal migrations. It was also suggested that the Central government must bear the full cost of this identity card scheme.

A pilot project was thereafter initiated in thirteen districts of twelve States and one Union Territory covering a population of approximately 31 lakhs. The districts and the States/ UT wherein this project was launched are Karimganj(Assam), Kathua(J&K), Kutch(Gujarat), Jaisalmer(Rajasthan), Pithoragarh(Uttaranchal), Maharajganj(UP), West Tripura(Tripura), Murshidabad(WB), North Goa(Goa), North West Distt.(Delhi), Pondicherry(Pondicherry), Medak(AP) and Ramanathapuram(TN).

The MNIC project, expected to start in April 20034, finally took off in November 2003 to create a national identity for every Indian with the objective of managing citizen identity, increasing national security, ensuring speedy and efficient transactions, having a user friendly interface between the individual and the government, improving services to target persons in BPL and APL categories and deter future illegal immigration. The system envisages the preparation of a National Register of Indian citizens (NRIC) by collecting all legal and technical data from all households through house-to-house surveys. The completeness of such a National Register will help obviate the requirement of a regular census. A unique 16 digit National Identity Number (NIN) will thereafter be given to each citizen of the country and the MNIC will be issued to all Indian citizens above the age of 18 years. The details that are included in the MNIC are – Name, Sex, Father’s name, Mother’s name, Date of birth, Place of birth, Marital status, Name of spouse, Present and Permanent address, Identification mark, Photograph, Biometrics, Date of registration, issue of card and expiry etc. The smart card is a secure 16 KB micro-processor chip and has been designed by National Institute of Design(NID), Ahmedabad. The Cyber technology for these smart cards has been given by National Informatics Centre(NIC) and these will cost the exchequer approximately Rs 60 per card.

The Annual Report5 published by the MHA for the year 2006-07 states that the basic survey and data entry work in the pilot areas has been completed and photographs and finger biometrics incorporated for over 17.2 lakh citizens out of a targeted figure of 31 lakhs . The first set of these MNIC was distributed in early 2007 to 24 selected families in village Pooth Khurd in North West Delhi. The MHA Annual Report mentions that the distribution of cards is likely to be completed by mid 2007.

The issuance of National Identity Cards assumes even greater importance in the wake of the terrorist incidents like 9/11 in US, 7/7 bombings in London, 7/11 local train blasts in Mumbai, 6/30 attack at Glasgow airport, attack on the Indian Parliament, attack on IISc, Bangalore, Malegaon blasts, Diwali blasts in Delhi etc and the global reach of terrorist organizations, and the fact that India has borne the brunt of organized crime, terrorism and illegal immigration for over three decades now. Increased emphasis on security requires the preparation of National Identity Cards which are tamper proof and are a virtual store house of information on the individual and contain his unique identity in the form of biometrics as retinal scan, finger print, DNA, RFID technology etc.

The Indian economy has been witnessing near double-digit growth in the last couple of years. To sustain this trajectory the economy needs to mop up all possible financial resources and plug all the loopholes. The revenue authorities have tightened the financial institutions, laid down stricter guidelines for share markets and mutual funds and these measures have resulted in an increased collection of approximately Rs 30,000 crores in direct and indirect taxes during the year 2006-07 over the budgeted figures.

Benefits of MNIC

The benefits of having a unique numbered identity in respect of each individual are summarized below –

(a) Law enforcement - The database will help keep track of persons with criminal background. The movement of suspicious persons can be kept under close watch on the receipt of specific intelligence inputs. It will also be possible to identify criminals by picking up their fingerprints, DNA profile etc. if traces of these are found at the scene of crime. The movement of persons who do not have Identity Card or whose data is not available with the Government can be viewed with suspicion and a tighter check maintained on them.

(b) Revenue collection - Once the requirement of having an Identity Number is mandated under the law for all financial transactions, it will bring in a much higher degree of transparency and accountability in the system. The amount of black money in circulation will go down and the revenue collection would increase by at least 25- 30 percent. The Direct and Indirect Tax collection in the country for the year ending March 2007 was approximately Rs 4,70,077 crore and an increase of only 25 percent of this figure would amount to a staggering Rs 1,17,519 crores. All this can definitely help the Indian economy gallop at double-digit growth rate for the next couple of years.

(c) Socio-Economic Benefits - One of our Prime Minister is on record having said that only 15 paise out of a rupee invested went to the target beneficiary and rest was pocketed by middlemen and unscrupulous members of the Government. Once the Identity Number is made mandatory, only the genuine beneficiaries will reap these benefits and the flow of funds pertaining to these schemes can be tracked from the Government system to the Bank accounts of the beneficiaries. This will on the one hand uplift the lot of underprivileged people and on the other will definitely curb embezzlement of welfare funds.

(d) Elections- online - The use of national ID card can be made use of to help genuine people cast their votes online and also tap a large number of people who are not able to cast their votes because of various reasons. This will vastly improve the polling percentage and will in real terms enable people’s representatives to be elected. However, the system must be comprehensible to the vast majority of population, must ensure anonymity of the voter, permit only genuine voters to exercise their franchise, be secure electronically and guarantee the integrity of the election process. Such an interface could be established through the telephone and the computer. Several studies have been conducted in this regard and various models6 have been suggested. Estonia became the first country in the world this year to allow casting of votes through the Internet by using the national ID card.7

(e) Checking illegal immigration – The steady increase in illegal immigration along over 22,500 kms of the Indian land and sea border has led to changes in the demographic pattern, illegal settlements, encroachments on forest land, distortion in electoral rolls, skewed impact on the local development and is now posing a serious threat to national security and local identity. The Minister of State(Home) is on record in the Parliament in 2004 stating that over 1.2 crore illegal immigrants are present in the country. Madhav Godbole Report puts this figure at over 2 crore. The expeditious issue of MNICs to all citizens would be effective in containing this menace, which is jeopardizing our national unity, sovereignty and security. The 109th Report submitted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs to the Rajya Sabha on 23 August 2004 had hoped that the Pilot project would be completed by December 2004 and that the MNIC project should be implemented on full scale at the earliest.

(f) Better e-Governance- The objective of e-governance is to simplify procedures, remove red tape, reduce corruption and provide basic information to all by using electronic tools in an easily accessible and user-friendly environment. The SARITA project in Maharashtra, Bhoomi project in Karnataka, e-Seva centres in AP are such examples. The use of electronic tools can be coupled with the mandatory use of National Identity Cards to ensure that the benefits of the various schemes run by the government reach the target beneficiaries. The government can cut down on costs, reduce delays, fix accountability and increase efficiency in the system. Privacy International,8 an organization based in UK, has conducted campaigns and research throughout the world on issues concerning the acceptability of ID cards across countries, the usefulness of information available on them and how it can impact law enforcement, tax collection and welfare frauds. This organization has also examined aspects as diverse as possible discrimination and privacy issues related to issue of such ID cards.

(g) Medical field- The MNIC can also be developed to incorporate medical details of the card holders. This will help the government know the status of health of citizens and build up a database of persons affected by illnesses such as blindness, physical disability, mental retardation, AIDS, blood disorders, area specific problems etc. The government could then concentrate its efforts by allotting finances for specific programmes in specific areas and the database can act as a life giver for persons afflicted by incurable or life threatening diseases by enabling them find the right kind of donors of blood, bone marrow or life saving organs.

(h) Similarity with Internet- The use of MNIC’s can be shown to have a lot of similarities with the Internet. Herein, if a person has an email address he can send and receive emails. Even though nobody polices the Internet yet the misdeeds of the Internet users and hackers as in Child pornography, Terrorism, Gambling, peddling in Arms and Drugs etc could all be tracked using various tools, techniques and cooperation of the law enforcement agencies all over the globe. Similarly once each citizen has a uniquely coded MNIC, all his deeds, misdeeds, financial transactions, deals etc can be tracked. This will help make systems more transparent and ensure better accountability of rules and regulations.

Conclusion

The Pilot project has been overly delayed. The 112th Report of The Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs9 submitted before the Rajya Sabha on 20th April 2005 stated that the Pilot Project was to be completed by April 2005 but observed that the progress was tardy. An amount of Rs 14.22 crores had remained unutilized under this scheme out of a total allocation of 19.82 crores. The Parliamentary Committee noted with concern that such slow progress on such an important project was bound to have far- reaching ramifications for the maintenance of internal security. The Home Ministry should therefore take steps to complete the pilot project and ensure that this scheme is implemented at the national level at the earliest.

In the interests of the safety and security of the country and the fight against terrorism, all out efforts must be made for the expeditious preparation and distribution of the Multi Purpose National Identity Cards (MNIC) to all citizens above 18 years of age. In the process, the assessment of possible loopholes in the system, process of authentication and intrusion detection technologies must be kept track of. In this endeavour we must give full support to police, customs, income tax, other law enforcement agencies, development agencies, NGOs etc so that they dovetail their systems and make them MNIC-compatible and ensure that the Government systems become more user-friendly, accessible, efficient and effective in curbing the menace of criminals, illegal immigration and deliver benefits to the target audience while at the same time reducing red-tapism and corruption. All this would bring in a quantum jump in transparency and accountability of the system, which will go a long way in ensuring that the precious resources of the economy are utilized more fruitfully and efficiently while guaranteeing national safety and security.

(2,402 words)



Abstract of article

A number of countries in the world have established different forms of National Identity Number to track individuals for the purpose of Law enforcement, revenue collection, checking illegal immigration and curbing welfare frauds. India too has had different forms of identification systems over time as PAN, Voters Identity Card, Drivers licence etc. A pilot project is presently underway for the preparation of Multi Purpose National Identity Cards(MNIC) meant for distribution to every Indian citizen above the age of 18 years.
This unique identity can aid the law enforcement authorities curb crime, help in increased revenue collection, ensure that socio- economic benefits reach the target person, facilitate elections online, check illegal immigration and render life saving measures in the medical field.

The Pilot project is way behind schedule and so must be completed at the earliest. We need to usher MNIC in our country as early as possible to bring in transparency and accountability while at the same time ensuring national safety and security.



Bibliography
1. http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Identification_Number
2. http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipurpose_National_Identity_Card(India)
3. Report of the Group of Ministers on National Security, Chapter V- Border Management, pp 85- 86.
4. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home affairs, 109th Report on Demand for Grants(2004- 05) of Ministry of Home Affairs, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi.
5. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Annual Report 2006- 07, Chapter IV- Emerging Concerns and New Initiatives- Pilot Project on Multi- Purpose National Identity Cards, pp- 42.
6. http://www.mirzapur.nic.in/Nisani
7. Information Technology, What’s New- Estonia votes...online!, April 2007, pp- 18
8. http://www.privacyinternational.org/
9. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home affairs, 112th Report on Demand for Grants(2005- 06) of Ministry of Home Affairs, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi.

( published in Indian Police Journal : Apr - Jun 2008, pp 15-20)
( published in DNA newspaper, 26th June, 2009 )