India: Rights body says identity card could lead to discrimination

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India has raised concerns about the government's move to provide citizens with 'Aadhaar' or unique identification numbers, saying it could lead to discrimination, the Indian Express reported.

The NHRC's remarks came in response to a request for its views by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on the National Identification Authority of India Bill, introduced last December.

The Bill seeks to establish the authority for issuing 'Aadhaar' numbers to Indian residents to facilitate access to benefits and services.

The commission said the "possibility of discrimination cannot be ruled out" as the proposed bill provides that every resident shall be entitled to obtain an Aadhaar number, but does not say it would be issued to all citizens.

"Since the Aadhaar number is to be used and applied 'for delivery of various benefits and services', a citizen who does not have one may be denied access to these, while a resident, who may not be a citizen, would have access if he had obtained an Aadhaar number," the NHRC said.

The commission also shared concerns raised by others that the stored biometric information could be tampered with, although it noted that the Bill sets out precautions.

Further, the NHRC noted that the "biometric information" and "demographic information" have not been clearly defined and said that precautions should be taken to ensure that individuals are not required to disclose confidential information about themselves.

In addition, the NHRC urged the authority to consider the difficulties that women, children, senior citizens and persons with disability are likely to face in registering or verifying their biometrics.

Date: 19 September 2011