Posted on 06/28/2009 9:01:24 AM PDT by FromLori
India is planning to provide its 1.1 billion-plus citizens with ID cards.
Entrepreneur, Nandan Nilekani has been chosen to lead the ambitious project which will be the second largest citizens' database in a democracy, with China being the biggest.
The government believes the scheme, which will be finalised over three years, will aid the delivery of vital social services to the poorest people who often lack sufficient identification papers.
It also sees the scheme as a way to tackle increasing amounts of identity fraud and theft and, at a time of increased concern over the threat of militant violence, to boost national security and help police and law officials.
Like Britain's £5billion ID cards plan, due to roll out in 2011/12, India's scheme is not without controversy.
Observers have raised questions including how the cards will actually improve the delivery of services and also concerns that the scheme could be disruptive.
In an interview in The Independent today associate fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House, Charu Lata Hogg, said: 'It cannot be denied that the system of proving identity in India is complicated and confusing.
'But a system of national ID cards can technically introduce a new route to citizenship.
'This could be used as a security measure by the government which leaves migrant workers, refugees and other stateless people in India in limbo without access to public services, employment and basic welfare.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Half are named Singh and the other half are named Patel.
When did China become a democracy? I know it is becoming more capitalist than the US, but a democracy?
A hacker can do a lot of damages.
Words don’t mean anything any more. It’s the thought that counts.
It is interesting that both China(Red) and India(democratic) can do this job and our pols think it is impossible. It is absolutely needed. The govt already has the information to do it, but is blocked by various forces.
It is the only way we will solve the immigration issue..no ID no job. No ID..no fly. No ID..no drive. No Id no credit.
like the lady from China mentioned when asked about China’s new policy that the people could have only ONE pet (she had two), people will always find a way to get around the rules.
I can’t believe you’re serious. The ONLY way to solve the immigration problem is to secure our borders ! ID cards can and will be issued to illegals after entering the country. If you think otherwise, just wait.
"...second largest citizens' database in a democracy, with China being the biggest."
Exactly. And most importantly, “no ID, no vote”. However, the system really needs to be biometrics-based, with triplication of records at the federal, state, and county levels. Nothing else will prevent large scale fraud or the need to carry “papers” (which are meaninglesss anyway, since papers can be switched from person to person, as well as forged). In a free country, no citizen should be required to “carry” anything but themselves, and that’s all that should be needed to confirm identity when necessary.
India has a massive illegal immigration problem, and the country built electrified, triple-stage fences around its open land borders, a length of about 3000+ miles, in total.
We should build electrified fences here too we have a huge illegal alien problem.
India builds a 2,500-mile barrier to rival the Great Wall of China
The Times Online UK
December 28, 2005
Villagers on the Bangladesh border say the fence will cut them from their homeland
TO REACH the baked earth of his mustard field each day, Mohammed Safiqual Biswas must pass coils of barbed wire and armed guards and show his identity card at a security check. The problem is not where Mr Biswas has come from, but where he is going to. His fields lie 60 miles east of Calcutta, right in the no mans land between India and Bangladesh.
Next month India plans to fence off this area of West Bengal as part of a little-known £600 million project to erect a steel barrier right along its 2,500-mile border with its much smaller Muslim neighbour. As a result Mr Biswas and his village of 2,000 people will be sealed off from their own country.
Well be fenced out of India, the 30-year-old farmer complains. What if theres an emergency and we have to go to the mainland? What if theres no one at the gate to let us out? Well be completely cut off.
India is 30 times the size of Bangladesh and the two nations share South Asias longest border. But despite Indias help during Bangladeshs War of Independence in 1971 against what was then West Pakistan, relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years.
While the worlds attention has been focused on the Israeli security barrier sealing off the West Bank, India has been building a far longer fence to keep out Islamic militants, thwart cross-border smuggling and stop human trafficking.
More than 1,300 miles of the barrier has been erected in the six years since building began. Snaking through jungles, rivers and the villages of five states, Delhis floodlit, 12ft double fence packed with razor wire will render India a fortress against her neighbour.
The problem India faces is that 100,000 of its citizens live and farm on a 150-yard patch of land hugging the international border known officially as the zero line, and they live on the wrong side of the fences designated path.
Entire villages, including schools, temples and mosques lie in what will effectively become no mans land. Although Bangladeshis and Indians along the border have lived cheek by jowl for decades, and share the Bengali language and culture, relations between them are strained by suspicion.
The Indian villagers fear that once the fence is built they will be harassed by Bangladeshs security guards. They say that locked away from Indian guards their fields and homes could be looted with impunity by Bangladeshi farmers.
Rabreya Bachhri, who lives in Jayantipur, the same village as Mr Biswas, says: Even now the Bangladeshis cross over at night from their side and steal our cooking utensils and cows. Were very worried about our future. India has to look after us and keep us inside the fence or it will make us Bangladeshi.
Sandwiched between two nations, the villagers say that they get a raw deal from both countries. The Indian and Bangladeshi security forces accuse them of colluding in smuggling and illegal immigration.
Officers from Indias Border Security Force say that Bangladeshis claim they are entering India for medical treatment but do not have the required travel documents. One senior officer said: Even those who come with documents dont go back. The number of people coming into India is less than the number returning.
Officials say that the fence has already stemmed the flow of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants attempting to cross into India from about 65,000 annually a decade ago to just 10,000 this year.
Shivajee Singh, a border security force inspector-general, said: When the fence was put up the numbers came down.
But Delhi is increasingly concerned about infiltration by militants from a country with a large, poor Muslim population that was scooped from India by partition. It accuses Bangladesh of harbouring insurgent groups fighting for accession from India from its northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur.
There are also concerns about the rise of radical Islam after the spate of bombs and violence in Bangladesh. Militancy is a new dimension, Mr Singh said. Earlier people came for employment. Now were getting reports that theyre coming for terrorist activities.
India has consequently accelerated the barriers construction, hoping to complete it by spring next year. It will also increase the number of troops along its border with Bangladesh from 45,000 to 53,000. In a move to bring villagers such as Mr Biswas inside the barrier, India has asked Dhaka to permit it to build the fence within the zero line, an area that both countries promised to keep free from defence structures in an agreement made 30 years ago.
Delhi claims that its request has so far been refused. However, a senior official of the Bangladeshi Embassy in Delhi said that talks between the two nations were continuing. Were always open to discussion with friends and neighbours, he said. But the agreement cant just be changed by wishful thinking.
Excerpted. Read more at link.
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