Shambhu Sharma had arrived with nothing that could prove who he was. He had no passport, no ration book, no voter identity card or anything similar. Four years ago, he said, he was pick-pocketed and everything was taken. As India goes about trying to provide a unique identity number to each of its citizens, it is people like Mr Sharma who provide officials with some of the most testing challenges. The government's scheme accepts 17 separate forms of photo identification and 32 as proof of address, but sometimes there are individuals such as Mr Sharma who genuinely have nothing.This article and the Economist interview may point toward an increased interest in confronting the anti-UID narrative that has been getting a lot of attention lately.
"It creates many problems for me. I cannot open a bank account, or buy rail tickets or a gas cylinder connection. It means I have to get one on the black market," sighed Mr Sharma, who works for an non-governmental organisation. "I cannot even buy a Sim card."
Other recent posts on the subject:
India: How Much Fraud is Acceptable in NPR, UID
India: Lawyer Sanjay Parikh Unconvincingly Urges Biometric System Boycott
h/t @m2sys
