Poorest of the Poor Expect to Benefit the Most from India's UID

This won't be new to regular readers but it can't be repeated often enough. World's biggest biometric ID scheme forges ahead (BBC)

Among those in the queue is Kamala, a daily wage labourer.

It's people like her, the poorest of the poor, who are expected to benefit the most from the UID. They have no proper identity papers and therefore no access to services such as subsidised food rations, a phone connection, even a bank account.

"It's so difficult to get anything done without a proper identity," she says. "We're often forced to pay bribes to get subsidised grains or fuel.

"With the UID I hope things will improve - we can buy cheap food and I can help educate my children."

Technically, the challenge India has set for itself — a unique, legitimate ID for every individual in society — reminds me of the polio mass immunization efforts of the 1950's and the goal is of no less importance.

A unique, legally recognized individual identity is a prerequisite for any sort of decent society. It is an infrastructure without which many things those in the developed world take for granted simply cannot exist: compulsory primary education, successful immunization against (and treatment of) preventable communicable disease, social safety nets, effective democracy, etc.

A legitimate ID is a prerequisite to full participation in the modern world.