UID evaluating criticisms with feasible solutions

Abstract

For a nation like India, with over 1.2 billion population spread across 32, 87,263 sq. km., more than 35.16 per cent being illiterate (2001 census) and speaking 22 different languages, and following various religions, the complexity of a unique identity scheme becomes multi-fold.The UID project is a very critical initiative for India and in all possibilities, everyone has to make sure that the project neither faces the same fate as similar other large scale exercises in the country nor like the national ID initiatives of some other countries. Hence, it becomes critical to analyse the areas of concerns coming up from whatever has been done so far in this initiative. It is not that the ambition of providing unique identification to all the residents/citizens of India is unachievable. The overall exercise needs to be planned meticulously based on concrete evidences and the efforts and outcomes of the project clearly mapped. Also, the perceived benefits of such a scheme need to be well quantified in terms of its value and impact on the society as well as its capacity to generate revenue or save cost. The feasibility of the claimed benefits and their impact needs to be thoroughly evaluated in consultation with the respective stakeholders. From the existing reports, it seems that very little effort has been made towards estimating the total cost of the project and mapping the same with the perceived benefits. In fact there is no indication of any costbenefit analysis having been conducted by the government for the UID project. Moreover, substantial focus would still be needed in the areas of trust generation among various stakeholder groups by understanding their readiness, feasibility, and ways to generate trust among these stakeholders in such a critical initiative. Thus, mapping drivers (and inhibitors) of adoption in considering socio-economic and cultural issues in the designated areas of roll-out becomes an absolute necessity.