It is even more difficult.
Image from: Quartz
Although it has been launched for 10 years, there are still many technical problems in this system, such as the machine is not stable enough, more importantly, India’s network infrastructure is not perfect, Internet coverage is less than 40%, and biometric identification The machine does not support offline work, which makes many eligible people do not receive social benefits.
According to the Guardian, the Indian man Majhi fell outside his home in May this year. It was already too late when his wife found and sent him to the hospital. Although the cause of death was not announced, the family thought that Majhi was Starved to death.
Majhi’s wife, Alabati Devi, said that when her husband came out to find a job, she said to her, “Give me food, or I will starve to death,” but this poor family can’t afford rice even. Devi believes that chronic lack of food causes Majhi to be malnourished.
All this can be avoided, they can actually get a pension, but since January the pension has not been deposited into the account, it is said that this is because Aadhaar’s machine can not identify their fingerprints.
Aadhaar’s fingerprint scanning machine. Image from: Reuters
What’s even more frightening is that India is happening every day. According to statistics, in Jharkhand alone, there are at least 13 cases of people starving to death due to Aadhaar failure to receive subsidies, including an 11-year-old girl.
Pansure Murmu, who runs rations in a small town in India, says the network signal is a big problem. “We usually have to send the machine to a place one or two kilometers away.”
According to India’s Food Rights Movement (RTF), two villages in Jharkhand this summerThere was no food subsidy for the network problem for two months.
Although the government issued a notice saying that local governments should not refuse to issue subsidies because of failed fingerprint scanning, in fact, many places have not done so.
Image from: globalgiving.org
Not just pension and food support, Nadini Singh, 10, was unable to attend school because of an identity error. Kela Devi, who works at the nursery school, did not get the salary for 8 months because of the verification problem. Some people still can’t identify the fingerprint and can’t take out the money in the bank…
After the launch of Aadhaar, the government of Jharkhand of India stated that it cancelled 1 million forged subsidy cards, but the RTF sample surveyed 135 of the cancelled subsidy cards and found that only 2 were forged, and 3 Zhang is “identity repeat.”
More people were removed from the subsidy list without their knowledge. It is reported that 3 million people are unable to receive the designated food quota.
In 2017, the Indian public protested that the government had tied the free lunch for children to public schools and Aadhaar. Image from: AFP
And this certification scheme is mandatory. The public has no right to choose. If you do not accept normal working life, it will be difficult to continue, but you have to face more trouble after joining, and Aadhaar hopes at first. The vulnerable groups that helped, in the end, became the biggest victims of the plan.
As Reetika Khera, an economist and social scientist at the Delhi Institute of Technology in India, said, “This is an incredible monitoring tool. It does not bring any benefits, it is also devastating to the welfare system.” /p>
An Indian woman is collecting iris data. Image from: Reuters
Every time is being pushed forward by the torrent of technology, but not everyone will enjoy the convenience of technology, and some people will be abandoned by technology.
In addition to Aadhaar, in some European countries, the cashless society brought about by the popularity of mobile payments has affected the livelihoods of a large number of vulnerable groups such as the poor, the elderly and homeless street sleepers, because these are selling newspapers. Magazine-based small traders cannot easily accept digital payments.
Magazine The Big Issue provides a convenient card reader for sellers
In Sweden, where cashlessness is high, only 2% of transactions are in cash, but at least 1 million of Sweden’s 10 million people are not ready for digital payments, of which 600,000 are old People, others include people with disabilities and refugees.
Technology itself is not wrong, nor is it to abandon the development of technology in order to take care of a few people, but technology is still serving people. People can live more comfortably and comfortably because of a technology, but should not use a certain item. Technology has become difficult to move, at least to give everyone a chance to choose.
The cover image is from pexels