Death by Aadhaar by Usha Ramanathan

SouthWord

Lawyer Usha Ramanathan has been one of the most vociferous voices against the Unique Identification Authority of India's Aadhaar project. She represented petitioners in one of the many cases against the UIDAI that the Supreme Court collectively heard arguements this May. At a public talk, hosted by the Centre for Law and Policy Research in Bangalore, Ramanthan spoke about the numerous problematic facets of the biometric-based Aadhaar project. This 5-part series highlights some of those arguments. Failure of biometric authentication is one of Aadhaar's biggest drawbacks, which has led to denial of benefits and services and even deaths. This failure is something that then UIDAI director general RS Sharma had conceded to in an interview to Frontline magazine in 2011.