*public sign on statement do send your individual or institutional endorsementsalong with organisational affiliations to :: *Reetika Khera <[email protected]>
* Keep UID out of NREGA!* The undersigned demand that the plan to link MGNREGA to aadhaar (or UID) be revoked immediately. This is an extremely dangerous move that threatens to cause havoc in MGNREGA’s fragile structure. The Ministry of Rural Development has put out a tender (dated 11 October, 2010) worth Rs. 2162 crores to engage "service providers" for MGNREGA under a "public private partnership" model. The contract includes "UIDAI compliant enrolment of job card holders under MGNREGA scheme", "Recording...data in the field such as biometric attendance at worksite with GPS coordinates..and updation of centralized MIS." and similar measures. Clearly, the Ministry intends to link the issue of new job cards to UID enrolment in the states. Job cards issued in 2006 are due to expire in 2011. Job cards are required to claim employment under the MGNREGA. If the issue of new job cards is linked to UID enrolment, there is a danger of creating a jam that would disrupt the programme. The process of job cards renewal, in any case a slow process, will be further slowed down. Many people are likely to be denied their entitlement to 100 days of work as they will be without a job card. Further, in spite of the hiring of "service providers", the entire administrative machinery is likely to be diverted into capturing of biometrics or supervising "service providers". The scale of MGNREGA works is bound to suffer. This would be a gross injustice to NREGA workers, who are already deprived of their basic entitlements. The proposal of "biometric attendance at the worksite with GPS coordinates" is completely impractical - many MGNREGA worksites are in remote areas with poor or no connectivity. Does that mean those worksites will close down? We do welcome the use of technology provided that it enhances transparency, empowers labourers and is cost effective. Such technology has been used with success in Tamil Nadu. For instance, it combines SMS reports on daily attendance with random spot checks to curb the problem of fake muster roll entries. Localized use of biometrics, independent of UID, to speed up payments can be considered. Biometrics and UID are not the same. In Rajasthan, simpler measures have been put in place, such as "transparency walls" where all job card holders in the Gram Panchayat are listed along with days of work, allowing people to monitor implementation. There are many problems in the implementation of the MGNREGA which need the urgent attention of the Ministry. These include the non-payment of minimum wages, delays in wage payments, insufficient scale of MGNREGA works, discrimination against Dalits and women, and so on. We therefore demand that neither MGNREGA employment nor wage payments be linked to UID enrolment. Employment of 100 days under MGNREGA is the only universal entitlement that the rural poor enjoy. It should not be jeopardized by the introduction of disruptive technology under pressure from corporate and security lobbies. *Signatories* 1. Nikhil Dey (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan) 2. Arundhati Dhuru (National Alliance of People's Movements) 3. Jean Drèze (Honorary Professor, University of Allahabad) 4. Jayati Ghosh (Professor, CESP/SSS, Jawaharlal Nehru University) 5. Praveen Jha (Professor, CESP/SSS, Jawharlal Nehru University) 6. Simrin Makhija (Co-ordinator, Khunti NREGA Sahayata Kendra) 7. Rajkishore Mishra (Right to food campaign, Orissa) 8. Nandini Nayak (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) 9. Anirban Kar (Associate Professor, Delhi School of Economics) 10. Reetika Khera (Visitor, Centre for Development Economics) 11. Abhay Kumar (Navjeevan Mahila Okkoota, Karnataka) 12. Gangaram Paikra (Chhattisgarh Kisan Mazdoor Andolan) 13. Annie Raja (National Federation of Indian Women) 14. R. Ramakumar (Associate Professor, Tata Institute for Social Sciences) 15. Aruna Roy (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and National Advisory Council) 16. Dipa Sinha (Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University) 17. Sowmya Sivakumar (Freelance journalist) 18. Kavita Srivastava (People's Union for Civil Liberties) 19. Kamayani Swami and Ashish Ranjan (Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan, Bihar) 20. Vikram Vyas (Physicist, St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi) -- -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist The UID project is going to do almost exactly the same thing which the predecessors of Hitler did, else how is it that Germany always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of the Nazis? The Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM which was in the 'census' business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but also identifying them. At the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was responsible for organising the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews. *SAY NO TO UID CAMPAIGN- SPREAD THE WORD AND JOIN FB GROUP* *http://aadhararticles.blogspot.com/ http://questioningaadhaar.blogspot.com/* http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=B67A798223F96E73 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
