On Monday 28 November 2011 09:24 AM, Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) wrote:
On Sunday 27 Nov 2011, Dinesh Shah wrote:Good. Now we should be able to make some headway. Experts here please suggest appropriate solution to this identity problem?If we can provide an alternative and "correct" solution no one can deny to adopt that one!This is the wrong list for that.
Why? As the subject says, we are looking at particular piece of tech is FOSS or Proprietary. And if the UID project IS proprietary we must offer an FOSS alternative.
The problems that the UIDAI claims to solve are social, political, economic, systemic. For those, you need solutions that are social, political, economic and systemic. Throwing technology at a problem doesn't magically solve it. As someone high up in the UIDAI once said, "When you have corruption and you bring in technology to prevent it, all you end up with is high-tech corruption."
Just saying the UID/Aadhar is solution for non-existing problem is not going to make it go away. UIDAI's claims may be over ambitious and may be even misleading. That does not mean technology does not solve social, political, economic and systemic problems. In fact technology is and should be used to solve all the above problem.
It is really strange that FOSS community (at least in India) takes ostrich like stance and when proprietary world (driven by money) comes out with a solution (for real or imaginary problems) we cry fowl.
To take an example: one of the issues that Aadhar will completely eradicate, as per NN, is the NREGA misuse of funds. However, this is completely ignoring the ground realities. NREGA disentitlement occurs in one of three ways: - Coercion: The sarpanch's goondas stand outside the disbursement office and take your money once you have collected it from the NREGA outlet. - Collusion: The sarpanch and you agree that he will enter your name as having worked the day, you keep half the money and give half to him. - Identity: The sarpanch enter a completely fictitious person into the NREGA records and someone continues to collect money on this person's behalf. 70 to 80% of abuse of NREGA is in the first two categories, which UID can do nothing about. If it does work (highly unlikely considering the lack of proper testing) all it would impact is 20 to 30% of NREGA abuse.
So what's wrong in plugging that 20/30% (7875 to 11813 Crores for Year 2010-11 - http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/mpr_ht/nregampr.aspx ) of leakage with the help of the technology? Why we insist that technology has to offer 100% of the solution to every problem then only we should spend/invest in technology?
To take the other much-touted aspect of Aadhar, terrorism control, just look at what happened in MP in July this year, when a SIMI activist was captured by the cops after a shoot-out in which 2 policemen died. When the authorities traced back to his house, they found a valid UID card with a fake name in his possession. The terrorists know how to get fake UIDs, and will get them whenever they want, while for people like you and I, who abide by the law, it will become just another vehicle for state oppression and control.
Unfortunately, we always tend to mix up with ID and Security.
Expecting technology to magically solve India's problems is like throwing atta, ghee, sugar and dry fruits into a pan, heating it and expecting laddoos as a result. The problems are too deep-rooted and widespread to be resolved by naive application of this technology or that -- if you really want change, stop writing code and start a social or political campaign.
You will not get laddoos but at least you will get sheera which as tasty as laddoos. :-)
Once again dismissing that technology does not bring change is as hollow as claiming that the Internet is neither useful nor revolutionary in bringing out real change. So is for each and every technology we use everyday - from electricity to tele-comm to auto mobiles and air-crafts and even nuclear bombs!
Regards, -- Raj
BTW, I do not support UIDAI in the current form (I have neither applied for or given an Aadhar Card till date) and asking my community to come out with solution (to real or imaginary problem). Can FOSS people stand up to this?
With regards, -- --Dinesh Shah :-) Shah Micro System Pvt. Ltd. +91 98213-11906 +91 9833-TICKET http://www.shahmicro.com http://iopt.in Blog: http://dineshah.wordpress.com/ Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dineshah/
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