Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Personal identification is now an essential prerequisite for development in the modern world. Providing proper identification documents improves access to both public and private services for citizens and helps governments to understand and serve their citizens better. In an effort to make identification systems as unique and accurate as possible, states are implementing more robust (unique, secure, and accurate) systems through the integration of biometrics, most commonly fingerprints. While the systems seem to be effective from a government’s large-scale perspective, biometrics-based systems present significant challenges, including universal coverage, accessibility, and implementation challenges. This thesis studies Aadhaar, India’s biometric identification system, as a case study in order to understand how the users perceive the system. As the largest biometric identification system in the world, over one billion individuals are enrolled in the system. India created Aadhaar with the dual intention of providing an identity to those unregistered in the current system and to enable government databases to communicate with each other to ensure that state funds would be delivered directly and only to those in need. Despite incredible enrollment rates, 4.4 percent of Indian residents are excluded from Aadhaar for various reasons (State of Aadhaar, 2018). Because there is no alternative, these individuals are entirely excluded from the welfare services for which they are eligible. Consequently, different scholars have identified Aadhaar as both a success and failure. This study seeks to understand how Mumbai’s urban poor perceive Aadhaar, specifically in regards to the distribution of Public Distribution System (PDS) services. This study will use the World Bank’s Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development: Toward the Digital Age as a guiding framework to organize the analysis. By using the World Bank’s principles as a framework, this study will identify ways in which Aadhaar has performed well and which ways Aadhaar needs to improve. Ultimately, this study found that when Aadhaar worked well for individuals, they expressed neutral or positive sentiments regarding Aadhaar. However, when Aadhaar did not work for individuals, they were completely excluded from the system. This necessitates more effective alternative methods for authentication.
Author: Caroline Schauder
Language: English
Subfield: Signal Processing
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3132295091