'Aadhar' for a people

The much anticipated Unique ID project, 'Aadhar' is making steady progress. Concerns have been raised about the privacy/security issues and the cost of the project. People who work in the IT industry know that projects of this size generally tend to have teething problems. Missed deadlines, cost overruns and implementation flaws are all part of such a mammoth undertaking.

Any solutions that are devised to reach the entire population for a country the size of India would have to be groundbreaking in nature. 'Aadhar' will not be a silver bullet for all the shortcomings of our system. It could yet to do some good.

The creation of 'Aadhar' is enabling access to banking services for people who never had any. The biggest expected payoff is in the area of administration of existing schemes like NREGA. In theory, the direct transfer of money to the beneficiary's accounts should reduce waste and abuse.

The creation of national population register(NPR) would enable collection of more elaborate data.

During the preparation of NPR, the enumerators will collect from each household 35 details related to total number of persons living there, their sex, number of dwelling rooms, number of married couples, source of drinking water, type of latrine, fuel used for cooking, type of floor, wall, roof, whether anyone owns car/two wheeler, anyone availing bank service among others.

These data points should help in designing and administering any new development schemes. 

As to which of these benefits truly materialize, we will have to wait to find out.