Lets support the UID project -2

Why UID project is all that important at this juncture?
Surprise of surprise, after singing the virtue of this project for three years, all of a sudden this project has become a nuisance and Nandan Nilekani has become the fall guy! The government which proclaimed to have hit upon a game changing idea by constituting the body and placing Mr nandan Nilekani at the helm of its affairs now says its not necessary!

Unless the electorates and the intelligentsia can stem the rot and firmly dictate terms- as Anna and his team do- we’d really lose out- in a big way! The country is already suffering from confidence deficit and international investors are no longer that willing to put their money in India. The sliding rupee evidences it and the situation would further precipitate if reforms are not brought back on the rails.

The political adhocracy has gotten into the nerves!
The dilly-dallying of the political class and lack of effective governance by the current regime has already started impacting our economic progress. UID would come handy to arrest the perennial scourge – corruption- comprehensively, when effective delivery of subsidy is the concern.

Now that ‘Right to Food’ bill is on the verge of becoming an Act, which would see food subsidy shooting up to dizzy heights, the financial profligacy would reach a new level unless we bring systematic checks like UID in to their right place.

That, subsidies do not reach their intended beneficiaries is a fact:
Billions of rupees are spent every year to uplift the common men from their poor state and as per the admission of a former PM and then very recently by his son (Rajiv and Rahul Gandhi) not even 15% of the expenditure reaches them. Now the technology is available by which the entire realm of Babudom could be by-passed and the PM can straightaway make a money transfer, be it an unemployment allowance, old age allowance, widow allowance or the payments for MG- NREGA; to the beneficiary accounts. That cannot be done unless we adopt a system, which will be full proof and would not permit duplication of beneficiary accounts. And for that the Iris and fingerprint- both at the same time- profiling is important.

A cost benefit analysis:
The people who rabidly oppose UID fail to see the bigger picture. The project would cost just around 2 US$ billion Dollar and that is small change compared to the amount that is spent on social welfare projects in India. For example: more than 4 times that money was spent last year on MG- NREGA, where it is no secret that bulk of the money does not reach the targeted beneficiary.

The privacy conundrum:
Agreed, there could be privacy issues; yet, compared to the benefits that it would bring, we should get ready to face those situations- if at all they occur.

Privacy and the common man:
Well, that’s a joke! 99 % of the people do not give two hoots to privacy. Well you may brand them as ignorant, beyond that please consider the following:
It’s common knowledge that, the Police pick up the common villagers and no entry is made in the station diary for weeks. For two square meals they go to towns where they cannot open a Bank account or cannot provide any document to prove that they exist. Unless they swell the ranks of some corrupt politician- as supporters or goons- they would not get a ration card or a driving license. When they die by falling from a sub-urban train or on a road accident, so often, they are just a number. Every year, thousands of common people turnout as dead corpses- in all conceivable places- and then police close the files by marking ‘unidentified dead body- murder suspected/ not suspected’. Ditto is the case with poor young women disappearing and then getting exploited for their entire life in brothels. If anything, they-the common men- would love to know that they exist and even if their data is stolen, it can hardly cause them any more harm. Is it not said that: ‘when you fight with little to lose you fight with great advantage’!

A face for the millions of faceless:
If it is not implemented then the common man will continue to live a faceless and ungainly life.

Now, who all are so concerned about Privacy?
It’s the rest 1% who milk the system- either as corrupt bureaucrats, businessmen or politicians. Unfortunately the entire lots of indoctrinated communists are also swelling their ranks! Credible identification of common women would make it difficult for pimps and brothels to run their business with impunity. For, then the chances of tracing victims to their families and thereby unearthing the entire trail would become very easy and simple. Sting operations by citizen journalists would do what the entire police departments are unable to do till date. Fingerprint matching of a missing woman can be done by anybody who is computer savvy and gets an access to the fingerprints of the missing woman. It would be virtually impossible for brothel owners – be it in Kamathipura or Sonagachi- to hide the identity of their new recruits. By extension, the same is also true for unearthing the other corrupt ways of rich and influential- like forced labor in brick kilns and other such body shops- and they have every reason to be wary of that!

An effective check against corruption:
UID is going to make it difficult for the corrupt bureaucracy to continue with their corrupt ways. IMHO Team Anna should consider backing a robust UID project than demanding for the inclusion of smaller babus under the purview of “Lok Pal”. Direct cash transfer would leave very little room for the smaller bureaucrats to play with the economic entitlements of the common man and the other entitlement could be addresses through a functioning judiciary, eventually.

Economic immigrants getting a backdoor entry into Citizenry:
This concern is quite valid and necessary checks could be instituted to prevent non-citizens acquiring UID cards. Scrapping the project under this pretext would tantamount to “throwing the baby with the bath water”.

The last words:
Unless we plug the loopholes, with sky rocketing subsidies and political baggage like MGNREGA, the country would fast recede into an abyss, as it happened in 1990. The Budget deficits are increasing and there is no end in sight of political profligacy and populist measures like increasing Food, fertilizer and Kerosene subsidies. There is no denying that a welfare state has to defend its weaker sections and that’s why these were fashioned at the first place. But, the moot question is: Are there no other more efficient ways of delivering the subsidies? Yes there are.

The government rightly indicated its gradual movement towards direct cash transfers, in the last budget. This will substantially cut the pilferage of the subsidy and increase efficiency of delivery. So, lets whole-heartedly support the UID project