The government of India has launched a massive biometric ID project, that entails assigning a 12 digit number to each person, and linking it to the person’s biometrics — and everything the person owns and does. In the face of widespread thefts and human and civil rights abuses due to Aadhaar, there are immense fears and public resistance. This is why the silence of the global media is unconscionable! I am very grateful to Teresa Domínguez for this interview below and for giving a voice in the global arena to the Indian citizens resistance to Aadhaar.
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Below is the English version of my interview to Teresa Domínguez about the Aadhaar for the journal Contrainformacion.es.
The interview is published in Spanish and can be read on this link: https://contrainformacion.es/sistema-biometrico-aadhaar-la-vulneracion-derechos-humanos-pais-entrevista-rita-banerji-escritora-directora-50-million-missing/
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El sistema biométrico Aadhaar o la vulneración de derechos humanos de un país. Entrevista a Rita Banerji, escritora y directora de 50 Million Missing
by Teresa Domínguez (@letra_escarlata)
In the first chapter of this series we saw the systematic genocide of girls and women in India: sec 68 million ú n the latest data . Last week we wrote about an issue that is currently being debated in our country (Spain), rent a womb, with a first-hand look at this violation of human and reproductive rights of Indian women. Today we continue the series dealing with an issue that violates the most basic civil and human rights of Indian citizens and especially an important part of the population, women.
The 12-digit biometric ID called Aadhaar in India is echoing as one of the greatest rights violations that is causing an unprecedented human rights crisis in India, with the consequential increase in social resistance.
The Aadhaar system is a massive, centralized database with 360 ° surveillance capability. It is not just an identification number assigned to a person, but a system that decides whether or not you exist through a fingerprint and a number. In addition, the system requires you to “authenticate” in all banking activities, pension, food ration, medical treatment, etc … which means placing your finger on a machine that indicates whether you exist or not. “And it does not matter if your neighbors and family testify that you are who you say you are, if the machine does not recognize you, you do not exist.”
The government first of all obliged all citizens of India to register in the biometric system called #Aadhaar and link their personal data and bank details, phones, etc … with the threat of cutting off their telephone, pension, rationing or freezing your pensions. Now, as a result of failed authentication, many people are declared dead or nonexistent or are being supplanted. Despite many violation of rights based on Aadhaar , including death by starvation or robbery, the government has now enacted a law that prevents citizens from filing a police or judicial complaint.
Thread on how the 12 digit biometric ID called Aadhaar impacts women & girls in India. Please note the Supreme Court of India is currently listening to petitions to declare the Aadhaar Unconstitutional. We want it to stop this #AadhaarWarOnWomen 👇 https://t.co/5bpMm2nDJv
— 50 Million Missing (@50millionmissin) February 14, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js The Aadhaar system is a massive attack on civil and human rights in India. An Orwellian system , totalitarian, according to the writer. The main victims and victims of the system are the poor, the elderly, the illiterate, the sick, the disabled and women. How that happens you can you read in this link . Rita Banerji tells us there are many cases of attacks against the most elementary rights of people. Aadhaar has redefined the Hindu concept of crime. If a company has the number and biometric data of a person and opens a bank account, without consent and withdraws funds, the government does not consider it fraud or theft.
Approximately 50% of Indians: that is half a billion citizens, are illiterate.The ‘Virtual ID’ campaign of UIDAI explains that multiple virtual IDs can be generated from their website so that persons do not have to share the 12 digits of the biometric identification. However only 26% of Indians use the internet. And only 3% of women have enough computer literacy to effectively use email and other online applications. This actually allows criminals to use this service creating false identities. In fact the UIDAI discovered that some of its own workers were falsifying and stealing data. A Tribune newspaper journalist showed that for only $ 7.00 you can buy any of Aadhaar and all the details. A theft to vulnerable people and an attack on the most basic human rights of people.
“THE MEDIA IN THE WEST ARE ACCOMPLICES IF THEY DO NOT DENOUNCE THIS ATROCITY” RITA BANERJI.
To learn more about this topic, we spoke with the feminist writer Rita Banerji
What is the Aadhaar?
The answer is: nobody knows what Aadhaar is. It is assumed to be a 12-digit national identification number linked to a digital database with all the information and activities of a person and biometric data and which the government now says everyone should have. But the worst is that the government is forcing people, under threat of freezing their bank savings, blocking their phone or ration card, to force them to link their Aadhaar to everything that concerns them: bank account, phone, property, medical history, voter identification, car insurance, driving license, school, pension, rationing, death and birth certificate, everything! But Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship, since foreigners who live here for 182 days can also have it. Even the ISIS terrorists in India have it.
Aadhaar is not a government document, since the government contracted data collection to a private company called UIDAI, and a businessman named Nandan Nilekani, who then subcontracted it to many other private companies, including foreign companies. Now, through RTI (Right To Information) requests and court documents we see that contracts were awarded to US companies that are managed by former FBI and CIA agents who are also consultants to US intelligence.
Shyam Divan, the lawyer representing the petitions of numerous citizens who have seen their rights violated, before the Supreme Court Hearing of India along with other lawyers of the case, said last month before the Court that a US military contractor had developed the technology and owned the CIDR source code, and at any time could keep it, so it would cause an economic and social collapse in India and literally subject this country to digital slavery by the US and its big corporations like Bill Gates, Microsoft, etc … that are very interested in this issue and have been promoting it for India despite the widespread human rights abuses as we have seen, including deaths from starvation, something that has not been seen since the freedom of British colonialism was reached.
Is Aadhaar verified by any official body?
The Aadhaar is not verified by any official body and has no official digital signature. It is not proof of address, nor of birth. What is now clear – with documented evidence – is that Aadhaar is almost like a coup secretly hatched by the Indian government against its own citizens, since 2009, together with foreign agencies, including foreign intelligence, large corporations and agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank. The main media have been silent and are part of a conspiracy, as it is owned and controlled by large corporations with vested interests. Mukesh Ambani, one of the richest Indians, also mentioned by Forbes as one of the 10 richest men in the world, laughed and said once that “the data is the new oil”.So Aadhaar is simply a 12-digit biometric digital tag that can be used to track every movement of citizens and cause “digital death” or “social death” with its deactivation by the government and its private allies.
When did it start to be implemented and are there other precedents?
It began to be implemented in 2009-10. In the first place, they said that it would be voluntary to benefit poor people, so that they had easy access to subsidized food (rationing) and pensions and that could be complemented by other means of identification. But there started to be cases in which the rights of many poor people who lacked Aadhaar were denied. The Supreme Court ruled and said it could not be mandatory identification. But then in 2014, the government of India changed, the right wing party entered to govern, and they ignored the Supreme Court ruling approving of he Aadhaar Act that would make it mandatory. Now Indonesia, which is governed by a dictatorship, with a flagrant violation of human rights, wants to replicate the Aadhaar. Yes, India is like an experiment conducted on 1/5 of the world’s human population.
Who is to behind to s of this system?
Western governments, especially the United States, the United Kingdom and large corporations, the IMF and the World Bank are the ones that seem to be behind this impulse.Of course, with the support of the corrupt leaders of the Third World who surely, with some personal benefit, sell our freedom and democracy. I think it connects with the Bretton Woods conference after the Second World War, when the United States and the United Kingdom met and planned a new way to continue the colonization of the third world through economic slavery, for which they created the IMF and the World Bank.
Who are the victims of this system? In what way does it affect women in particular?
The worst victims of the system so far are the poor, the elderly, the illiterate, the sick, the disabled and women. Infant Girls and a woman with cancer have died without being treated in hospitals, women are denied abortions, sick women stopped receiving their treatments for AIDS, losing even anonymity with what comes with stigma. Child marriages, falsified biometric data. Girls raped, forced to get married changing their personal information. The case of widows is terrifying. Women who are left without a pension or their food ration, dying of hunger. Desperate mothers because they can not feed their children. Many poor, widowed women have died of starvation by being denied ration and pension. An 11-year-old girl died of starvation for not having Aadhaar .Elderly people who are without their pensions. The mother of two disabled children in Bengal who were denied her disability pension because her children did not have their corresponding Aadhaar. In fact, more than 53,000 disabled and widowed people have been denied a pension for lack of identification since October 2016. Domestic workers robbed and deceived. All these cases and others can be read in this documented linkof the non-profit organization: 50 Million Missing .
Are the Western media reporting on this situation?
There is very little coverage in the Western media about this abuse of the fundamental rights of the Indian citizens that is creating a great crisis in the country. Interestingly, it seems that this silence is due to a conspiracy between these same media and capitalist corporations in order to give a false image and publicity of the Aadhaar program.
What is the Government’s position in the face of this injustice?
Most worrisome, is that the Government remains unperturbed by the news of people who are denied their basic rights. Human beings who are literally dying of hunger. Instead, the government denies it and treats the victims of liars and thieves.
Thomas Friedman lied about the Aadhaar biometric system in India in the NYTimes. These complaints can be followed up on the networks:
#AadhaarScam #AadhaarFemicide #AadhaarWarOnWomen #DestroyTheAadhaar #AadhaarLies
“THE MEDIA IN THE WEST ARE ACCOMPLICES IF THEY DO NOT DENOUNCE THIS ATROCITY” DENOUNCES RITA BANERJI.
A final reflection of Rita Banerji
Our fingerprint is now our identity, label and password for everything! This is one of the most important reasons why Aadhaar must be destroyed. In addition, the government has forced people to give fingerprints to all agencies: bank, telephone company, etc … It is a deliberate endangerment of the identity of people and of their property and savings! Of course, it is not surprising how much thefts have increased. The worst part is that we can change the identification and password for other systems, but the stolen fingerprints can never be changed. Many of us who argue against the Aadhaar, are very clear that it should be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and that the database, including biometric data, should be destroyed as the United Kingdom did. It is not even an ethical option since only people with knowledge are the ones who can benefit from an “opt out” option. When a system such as Aadhaar involves such widespread abuses of identity theft and personal rights, allowing it as an option means that those who are poor and illiterate will not be able to benefit and will not know how to use this option, much less know when their rights are abused. If there are voices of citizens with education in the cities that advocate this “option” system, they do so, so as to not contradict the Government and be considered anti-government. But it is selfish because they do not think about those who are already dying in rural areas of India, or are not educated or literate to understand the system, and those who will die if we allow this monstrous system to continue.
“Investigators and journalists who have identified gaps in this massive national identity project in India have reported that they have been harassed and subjected to surveillance by government agencies because of their work.” Via Reuters
Rita Banerji : Another concern of the use of Aadhaar is it may be used to manipulate and falsify the situation of female genocide in India. The current estimates are 68 million missing women in India, a figure that “The Hindu” reported in 2014 which was deduced using the method of Amartya Sen. The next census will not be until 2021. The figure of 63 million is reported by the present Government and based on “financial data”. We do not know what that is. The censuses in India are carried out every 10 years, with a door-to-door count. We are very concerned that, with Aadhaar, the government now affirms that we do not need door-to-door scrutiny when everything is digitized. We know that Aadhaar’s digital data is leaked, stolen, manipulated and corrupted and can not be trusted. That is why we fear that the government will digitally manipulate the sex ratio to show it as normalized. Currently the physical data gathered in registers by thousands of census officials in hand written registers are not possible to manipulate like a central digital database would be.
Next week “Sex and power”. To be continue…
Other chapters of the series:
REVOLUTIONS IN MY SPACE: A BLOG BY RITA BANERJI 