Business Line
G Naga
Sridhar
HYDERABAD,
DECEMBER 19,
Even as the debate on
the pros and cons of mandatory Aadhaar applicability for many services goes on,
a study conducted by an arm of the Reserve Bank of India sees need for caution.
A research paper
published by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology
(IDRBT) concludes that while Aadhaar has brought in biometric authentication on
a large scale, “the benefits to the consumers have been mixed, with not much benefit
to those in the last mile.”
While analysing
biometric authentication data from Andhra Pradesh as a case study, the research
done by S Ananth, an adjunct faculty at IDRBT, the study says the data
pertaining to a few months in the fist half of the present calender year
indicates that statistics may be masking larger problems related to access of
rations as far as delivery of government benefits to the last mile is
concerned.
“Though the numbers
indicate a halving of failures from a high of 7.14 per cent in January 2017 to
3.56 per cent in June 2017, this is accompanied by a commensurate 61 per cent
fall in the number of authentications in June compared with January,”’ it
observed.
Interestingly, the
failure rate is highest in the districts which are known to have large numbers
of migrant labourers. Similarly, the authentication failures were highest when
large number people were present in villages.
“This raises
important questions about the efficiency of Aadhaar and the government’s claims
about their introduction of anywhere-rations through their programmes called
ePoS,’’ it said.
BIOMETRICS QUALITY
There are quality
concerns as well, as the quality of biometrics captured is not known as
anecdotal evidence seem to indicate that the inability to capture biometrics in
three attempts have led to the persons employed in the enrolment centre forcing
the system to capture biometrics irrespective of quality, by manual ‘override’.
There is no way of
verifying the quality of biometrics stored, especially by the person who has
enrolled, it pointed out.
On the basis of a
cost-benefit analysis, the study points out that in the last-mile areas, the
role and contribution of Aadhaar has been far less beneficial than what it is
claimed and is often “celebrated” to be.
SAVINGS
Did it result in
“huge savings” to the government? This could be doubtful. While the government
claims it has already saved ₹14,672 crore by using Aadhaar, through
various Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programmes, it has actually incurred a
loss of ₹97 crore till date, the study says, citing a Canadian
agency report.
There is a need for
caution in the manner in which Aadhaar is used by the government, especially as
more programmes and economic activities are linked to it. “Only time will tell
if the benefits outweigh the costs or vice versa,” it said.
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