289 - 743 - What an idea, Sirji! - Financial Express

Sunil Jain
Posted: Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010

: What do programmes like the New Pension Scheme (NPS), the UIDAI, the Right to Education, the Right to Information, and many more, have in common, apart from the fact that all have been launched by the UPA?

Almost all, believe it or not, were originally efforts made by individuals/NGOs which have now got mainstreamed and have the potential, in both good ways and bad, to change our lives in a big way.

The Right to Information Act, it is pretty well-known by now, was borne out of the work of Aruna Roy and her campaign to have various registers/lists made public, muster rolls of workers who were supposed to have got money from various public works programmes, lists of public works sanctioned and the money allocated to them, and so on. The list of the other parents, as it were, is less well-known, and that is what this piece hopes to correct, at least partially. The timing is a bit off since it was actually meant to coincide with the 13th anniversary of the Delhi-based Centre for Civil Society (CCS) last month, but better late than never!

Parth Shah, who set up CCS, began talking of school vouchers several years ago. Why give a subsidy to a school, which is what government-run schools essentially boil down to; why not give it to parents? That way, if parents are dissatisfied with the quality of education, they will move their children to other schools; this will then put pressure on government schools to deliver. Many others were talking the same language, but what CCS did was different—it collected money to fund the education of 400 children for a year and then used volunteers to go across to certain wards in Delhi on cycle rickshaws using loudspeakers to publicise the scheme. For these 400 students, it got over a lakh applications. Poor India wanted to vote with its feet. The Right to Education Act has several shortcomings, the principal one being the insistence that all schools must be recognised by the government, which will drive up their costs and them out of business. But CCS’s school voucher system is inbuilt into the system since 25% of all school seats will have to be reserved for RTE children for whom the government will make payments. Not bad for a 13-year old.

In 2006, Gautam Bhardwaj, along with others like Vijay Mahajan of Basix, Renana Jhabvala of Sewa and UTI’s UK Sinha, set up Invest India Micro Pension Services (IIMPS), an outfit dedicated to work on pension funds among the poor—the company has set up a proprietary IT platform and even owns the brandname ‘micro pension’. By end 2008, it had begun working with the Rajasthan government in a scheme where the government co-contributed a one-time Rs 1,000 and 50,000 persons signed up for it, contributing Rs 100 per month—Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana have now announced similar schemes, and IIMPS has got queries from other Asian countries to run similar schemes for them. Meanwhile, it also signed another 1,50,000 persons for a similar programme, but without co-contributions from the government—the fund, administered by UTI, has earned around 13% per annum in the last few years. To put this in perspective, the government’s New Pension Scheme has just 11,000 members. Since NPS contributors end up giving around 10-11% of their contributions in commissions, the regulator has now announced NPS-light, with IIMPS-type minimum deposits and is also looking at working with groups like Sewa to get more contributors and at lower costs.

Around the same time, ICICI Bank’s Nachiket Mor branched out into financial inclusion and, with Fino, began figuring out how to take banking to the unbanked. Fino tied up with several banks and financial service providers, began giving biometric cards that captured all financial transactions—service outlets had card-readers and acted as banks.

Fino has 18 million customers today. It gives out money on behalf of NREGA, government pensions and even offers cashless hospitalisation in five states under the Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana. Unlike traditional MFIs like SKS who just lend money, Fino’s powerful backend allows banks to offer rural India insurance and money market mutual funds. Precursor to the UIDAI?

Yes, but not the only one. Anurag Gupta’s A Little World (ALW) began with smart-card based microfinance and then moved on to cardless mobile phone based banking. It has 3 million customers across 20,000 villages in 18 states. MCHQ, now mChek, the mobile payments solution, was originally developed by ALW. Others like Abhishek Sinha of Eko have improvised on this further and come up with one-time password generators for cash transfers. Rural banking, what RBI is stressing nowadays, couldn’t have come even as far as it has without these gents.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, similarly, was part of a process of focussing on urban planning and reform headed by individuals such as Ramesh Ramanathan (who is also an independent director of Fino and the technical advisor to JNNURM) and Nandan Nilekani. 

What an idea,  Sirji!

277 - Eminent Indians against unique identity number - The New Nation

From Gopal Krishna
October 15th 2010

Some eminent personalities in India have opposed a project to give each citizen a unique identify number. In a statement they have said, the project that proposes to give every resident a 'unique identity number' is a matter of great concern for those working on issues of food security, NREGA, migration, technology, decentralisation, constitutionalism, civil liberties and human rights. The process of setting up the Authority has resulted in very little, if any, discussion about this project and its effects and fallout. The documents on the UIDAI website, and a recent draft law (the National Identification Authority Bill, which is also on the website) do not provide answers to the many questions that are being raised in the public domain. This project is intended to collect demographic data about all residents in the country. It is said that it will impact on the PDS and NREGA programmes, and plug leakages and save the government large sums of money. It would, however, seem that even basic procedures have not been followed before launching on such a massive project.

Before it goes any further, we consider it imperative that the following be done:

Do a feasibility study:
There are claims made in relation to the project, about what it can do for PDS and NREGA, for instance, which does not reflect any understanding of the situation of the situation on the ground. The project documents do not say what other effects the project may have, including its potential to be intrusive and violative of privacy, who may handle the data (there will be multiple persons involved in entering, maintaining and using the data), who may be able to have access to the data and similar other questions.

Do a cost:benefit analysis:
 It is reported that the UIDAI estimates the project will costs Rs 45,000 crores to the exchequer in the next 4 years. This does not seem to include the costs that will be incurred by Registrars, Enrollers, internal systems costs that the PDs system will have to budget if it is to be able to use the UID, the estimated cost to the end user and to the number holder. In a system such as this, a mere statement that the UIDAI will deal with the security of the data is obviously insufficient. How does the UIDAI propose to deal with data theft? If this security cannot be reasonably guaranteed, the wisdom of holding such data in a central registry may need to be reviewed.

The involvement of firms such as Ernst & Young and Accenture raise further questions about who will have access to the data, and what that means to the people of India.

Constitutionality of this project, including in the matter of privacy, the relationship between the state and the people, security and other fundamental rights.

Questions have been raised which have not been addressed so far, including those about -

Undemocratic process: UIDAI was set-up via a GoI notification as an attached office of the Planning Commission without any discussion or debate in the Parliament or civil society. In the year and a half of its inception, the Authority has signed MoUs with virtually all states and UTs, LIC, Petroleum Ministry and many banks. In July, the Authority circulated the draft NIA Bill (to achieve statutory status); the window for public feedback was two weeks. Despite widespread feedback and calls for making all feedback public, the Authority has not made feedback available. Further in direct contravention to the process of public feedback, the NIA Bill was listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha 2010 monsoon session

Privacy (It is only now that the DoPT is said to be working on a draft of a privacy law, but nothing is out for discussion even yet)

Surveillance: where this technology, and the existence of the UID number, and its working, could result in increasing the potential for surveillance

Profiling

Tracking

Convergence, by which those with access to state power, as well as companies, could collate information about each individual with the help of the UID number.

National IDs have been abandoned in the US, Australia and the newly-elected British government. The reasons have predominantly been: costs and privacy. If it is too expensive for the US with a population of 308 million, and the UK with 61 million people, and Australia with 21 million people, it is being asked why India thinks it can prioritise its spending in this direction. In the UK, the Home Secretary explained that they were abandoning the project because it would otherwise be 'intrusive bullying' by the state, and that the government intended to be the 'servant' of the people, and not their 'master'. Is there a lesson in it for us? In the late nineties, the Supreme Court of Philippines struck down the President's Executive Order A.O 308 which instituted a biometric based national ID system calling it unconstitutional on two grounds - the overreach of the executive over the legislative powers of the congress and invasion of privacy. The same is applicable in India - UIDAI has been constituted on the basis of a GoI notification and there is a fundamental risk to civil liberties with the convergence of UID, NATGRID etc.

The UIDAI is still at the stage of conducting pilot studies. The biometric pilot study has reportedly already thrown up problems especially among the poor whose fingerprints are not stable, and whose iris scans suffer from malnourishment related cataract and among whom the incidence of corneal scars is often found. The project is clearly still in its inception. The project should be halted before it goes any further and the prelude to the project be attended to, the public informed and consulted, and the wisdom of the project determined. The Draft Bill too needs to be publicly debated. This is a project that could change the status of the people in this country, with effects on our security and constitutional rights, and a consideration of all aspects of the project should be undertaken with this in mind.

We, therefore, ask that:
o The project be halted,
o A feasibility study be done covering all aspects of this issue, o Experts be tasked with studying its constitutionality,
o The law on privacy be urgently worked on (this will affect matters way beyond the UID project),
o A cost benefit analysis be done,
o A public, informed debate be conducted before any such major change be brought in.

(Signatories to the statement on the UID included: Justice VR Krishna Iyer, retired judge, supreme court of India,
Prof Romila Thapar, historian,
K.G.Kannabiran, senior civil liberties Lawyer
Kavita Srivastava, PUCL and Right to Food Campaign Aruna Roy, MKKS, Rajasthan
Nikhil Dey, MKKS, Rajasthan
S.R.Sankaran, Retired Secretary, Government of India
and Deep Joshi, Independent Consultant.)

271 - NREGA 'breaking the feudally enforced silence' - One World South Asia

09 July 2009

The flagship programme of the Congress-led alliance in India for rural employment helped the incumbent government come to power for another term, say social activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey. With an increase of 144% budgetary allocation for the NREGS, the government has shown a strong commitment for inclusive growth.

Suddenly the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has become a buzzword. It stands vindicated by the mandate of the people in its most basic evaluation in a democracy – the general elections. Basking in the glory and security of post-electoral analysis, it is actually the best time for those who support the basic philosophy of the NREGA to focus on what it has done and what it has not, by its own parameters.

An opportunity for rural renewal, an NREGA project
site in Rajasthan/ Photo credit: The Hindu
An opportunity for rural renewal, an NREGA project site in Rajasthan/ Photo credit: The Hindu
The first and the primary focus should be to examine its impact on the human resource base of rural India. Has it energised, mobilised, empowered, and delivered to India’s poorest and most marginalised rural people?

Secondly, has it provided those who were “not shining” a measure of dignity, tangible economic benefit, and a motivation to participate in local action? This is the crux, for, something as vast and ambitious as the NREGA can only succeed in bringing about change if millions of workers become its true advocates and monitors.

Let us begin with the most persistent charges of endemic corruption. Notwithstanding negative propaganda and the prominent reportage of corruption, NREGA stands apart from employment and poverty alleviation programmes in significant ways.

It is the first national programme of consequence which has woven transparency and accountability into the mundane fabric of daily interaction of people with government.

"It is the first national programme of consequence which has woven transparency and accountability into the mundane fabric of daily interaction of people with government"
The cases of reported corruption have shocked the intelligentsia. The rural worker might often be the victim but will still offer critical support, not only because it has provided wage income, but also for facilitating disclosure, which helps identify and fight pilferage. In fact, in many cases, scams have been exposed by the workers themselves.

NREGA gives an opportunity to break the feudally enforced silence of its victims. Through transparency and social audit measures, it allows anyone, anywhere to be part of the monitoring of the delivery system. The other programmes appear to be clean only because no one knows what goes on!

The NREGA gives a further opportunity to realise the Constitutional sovereignty, the power of the people. What the political establishment would do well to understand is that the vote was not a blind endorsement, but the expression of a fragile hope of a rational participatory relationship with the government.

New claims

The NREGA has opened up a unique legal space for the poor, with a consequent, legally-mandated obligation on the administration to deliver. In fact, implementation rests on the simple philosophy that ordinary people will go to great lengths to procure their entitlements, given the space to do so.

Apart from systemic corruption, we are all aware of the chronic inefficiency, unwillingness and incapacities of the bureaucratic system to deliver entitlements for the poor. The persistent argument was that in this context implementation would be impossible.

The NREGA sought to create real opportunities and legal spaces, with the belief that people will begin to push to overcome bureaucratic and political resistance. The electoral endorsement over, it is a good time to begin to examine this aspect of bottom-up implementation. Does the rights-based approach really work?

The Act has a number of “trigger mechanisms” designed to activate and establish people’s entitlements. One such trigger is the right to have a Job Card. The Act mandates that anyone who applies at their Panchayat for a Job Card must be given one within 15 days.

"The Act has a number of “trigger mechanisms” designed to activate and establish people’s entitlements. One such trigger is the right to have a Job Card"
Without a Job Card, people cannot even apply for work, nor corroborate the records. It is a “license” and “pan card” of the wage worker’s family, with a record of days of work and wages received during the year. There are many States where large numbers of people have demanded, but not received, Job Cards.

In many Panchayats, the Job Cards are in the control of implementing agencies. Publicising the Job Card as a record of individual entitlements, to be updated by the authorities, and kept in possession of the workers, would ensure the NREGA is monitored by its workers.

Crucial accountability

The application for work and the dated receipt are crucial to trigger the demand for work. The receipt is also the basic record for claiming unemployment allowance if the work is not provided within 15 days.

States like Rajasthan have fared well in providing Job Cards, and providing work within 15 days, but resistance to giving dated receipts has become a massive problem. No State has effectively activated this important mechanism. Nevertheless, it has worked when workers groups have got organised.

In the 30 years of existence of its precursor, the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Act, there is no recorded instance of payment of unemployment allowance. The NREGA has already recorded payment of unemployment allowance to large numbers of workers in chronically poorly-administered areas.

The successful people’s struggles for the payment of unemployment allowance – in Barwani District of Madhya Pradesh, Raichur of Karnataka, Bolangir, Navrangpur and Kalahandi of Orissa, Latehar in Jharkhand, Sitapur District of UP – has been a breakthrough in accountability, and an inspiration to other workers struggling for entitlements.

The payment of unemployment allowance emanates from an administrative lapse, and is eventually deducted from the pocket of erring officials. It is not a freebie doled out of the government exchequer. Like the Right to Information Act, this has created an important mechanism for enforcing the right while holding the bureaucracy accountable.

The wage under NREGA has been another trigger and indicator of its success. The wage rate, the measurement system, and the timely payment of wages have all become part of the entitlement package. Thanks to NREGA, minimum wages have, for the first time, become a real factor in determining the lower limit for market wages. There are many ongoing struggles for the payment of minimum wages; and adopting a transparent measurement system for every work-site is a management challenge that has thrown up many grassroots solutions.

Bottlenecks

Wage payments through NREGA have initiated the biggest “financial inclusion” drive, with the requirement that all wage payments be made through banks and post offices. The engineers, the accountants, and the post offices have been unable to cope, and late payments have begun to cripple the Act.

Students and Academics, working together with workers’ organisations in Khunti District in Jharkhand, have operationalised the entitlement in the NREGA to get Rs 2,000/- per worker paid to over 300 workers as compensation for delayed payment under the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act.

The Khunti payment, made last month, has once again demonstrated that the solution to the vexatious issue of late payments lies in the entitlement framework.

The uneven implementation in different States has shown that where people’s struggles have gained political and administrative respect, the NREGA has shown tangible results on a massive scale. It is that battleground of struggle that could well determine the future of the political discourse in this country.

"The uneven implementation in different States has shown that where people’s struggles have gained political and administrative respect, the NREGA has shown tangible results on a massive scale"
The Government of India has transferred adequate money to the States and Districts to make timely wage payments. C.P. Joshi, the current Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, was reported to have talked about his party prospects in the polls being negatively affected because of late wage payments in Rajasthan.

As Union Minister now, if he were to exercise his administrative and political will to ensure compensation is paid to those receiving delayed wage payments, the lethargic bureaucratic system will find a way to respond. Chronic delays in wage payments during the drought in Rajasthan became a political issue, and the delays were wiped out. Innovations and mechanisms respond to a bottom-up demand, but do so best when the political establishment puts pressure.

The NREGA also assures an adequate, realistic provision for administrative expenses. At the current six per cent of total costs which has been allowed for administrative costs, there is no legitimacy in citing a shortage of staff or resources for bureaucratic delay.

In Rajasthan, for instance, the over 7,000 crores spent on NREGA last year amounts to a massive Rs 450 crores available for administrative expenses per year. This kind of money and resources can, in fact, help gram Panchayats become properly resourced to better carry out their overall responsibilities. It can also help ensure that there is no excuse for the failure to carry out all transparency measures and put an effective grievance redressal mechanism in place.

Biggest contribution

Transparency and accountability to the poorest and the weakest is in fact the biggest potential contribution of the NREGA to the entire governance system. The NREGA is an outstanding example of how the RTI Act can be woven into the fabric of the delivery system and the whole legal and governance paradigm. The entire expenditure on works and workers – 94% of the total amount – is required to be put on the website of the NREGA, with every transaction revealed in detail.

This can easily be increased to 100 per cent. Using this Management Information System (MIS), Vijaypura Gram Panchayat in Rajsamand District has begun to build a Janata Information System (JIS) painted on the walls of government buildings in the Gram Panchayat.

The boards reveal the details of the number of days of work provided and payments made in the year to every Job Card holder in the Panchayat. Also painted on the walls are the list of works sanctioned, the expenditure on labour and material, and item-wise expenditure on material in each work in the Panchayat, including exactly how many bags of cement, sand and trolleys of stone were procured, and at what rate in the Gram Panchayat. This is like a web wall which reveals to every interested visitor all that they want to examine.

What can be done in one Panchayat can be carried out in the 9,189 Panchayats of Rajasthan, and the hundreds of thousands of Panchayats in India. The walls in Vijaypura Panchayat provide details of 976 families given employment in 2008-09, where two thirds have completed 100 days, with an expenditure of 91 lakhs.

The Sarpanch is a Dalit youth from a poor family, elected in a general seat, and the Panchayat is proof of how well an Employment Guarantee programme can be implemented, in terms of people’s entitlements, transparency measures, worksite management, and many other innovations.

Larger impact

If the millions of financial transactions of the NREGA can go on their web site, there can be no justification for not following the example and putting almost every financial transaction of government – receipt or expenditure – on the web sites of the relevant department or agency. Proactive disclosure is a requirement of the RTI Act, and is a good example of the larger potential impact of the NREGA on governance.

The NREGA is India’s first law to codify development rights in a legal framework, and like the RTI, it has begun to set an example in a global context.

"The NREGA is India’s first law to codify development rights in a legal framework, and like the RTI, it has begun to set an example in a global context"
Apart from the law, and a set of guidelines, there is a strong and immediate need to formulate rules to operationalise provisions in the Act; which includes guaranteeing grievance redressal in seven days, social audit twice a year, and mandatory transparency and proactive disclosure.

Properly incorporated and enforced, a comprehensive set of operational rules could strengthen the entitlement framework, fixing responsibility at every level.

Once again, it would enable bottom-up pressure for implementation, which should be matched by a strong political mandate. Today, the NREGA has millions of workers’ unresolved and un-addressed grievances and problems to be dealt with.

A response system could not only radically improve the NREGA, but can impact and transform the whole face of rural governance.

Is the NREGA an administrator’s nightmare or a redistribution of income and power? A social safety net or a step towards the right to work, to prevent migration, and even boost local market economies? For those who cannot think beyond the pale of the free market economy and the business model manager, it is indeed a nightmare.

For years, simplistic management solutions to poverty, with the poor as an input to be managed, have failed. We cannot see ordinary people as active participants and empowered citizens.

That is why there is difficulty in understanding the practice and logic of democracy and difficult, therefore, to understand the realistic detailing and complexity of an Employment Guarantee initiative.

Inclusive growth

Independent India has to acknowledge the critical role the NREGA has played in providing a measure of inclusive growth. It has given people a right to work, to re-establish the dignity of labour, to ensure people’s economic and democratic rights and entitlements, to create labour intensive infrastructure and assets, and to build the human resource base of our country.

For the first time, the power elite recognises the people’s right to fight endemic hunger and poverty with dignity, accepting that their labour will be the foundation for infrastructure and economic growth.

"For the first time, the power elite recognises the people’s right to fight endemic hunger and poverty with dignity, accepting that their labour will be the foundation for infrastructure and economic growth"
The entitlements paradigm is still to be established in many States in the country.

Second generation issues like the expansion of the categories of permissible works needs to be taken up with labour and the deprived continuing to be the central focus.

The improvements must be to strengthen, not divert from these basic tenets. In the midst of the current economic slowdown, there is enough evidence that this kind of commitment can work to help reduce the slowdown.

The political class would do well to understand that the most important solution is an assertion of its will to respond to people’s voices. The many wise, creative, and innovative initiatives emerging from theory and practice have a future only if they are owned by the people and implemented with justice.

The NREGA can give people an opportunity to make the entire system truly transparent and accountable. Properly supported, people’s struggles for basic entitlements can, in turn, become the strongest political initiative to strengthen our democratic fabric.

Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey are activists with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). Email: arunaroy@gmail.com, nikhildey@gmail.com.

Source : The Hindu

230 - Historical Reasons against UID/Aadhaar Project

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Historical Reasons Against UID//Aadhar project

To

Mrs Sonia Gandhi
Chairperson
& Members
National Advisory Council
New Delhi

Subject-Historical Reasons Against UID//Aadhar project

Madam/Sir,

This is to place on record our deep sense of appreciation for National Advisory Council (NAC) which has reportedly disapproved the structural basis being laid out for future authoritarianism. Unmindful of massive opposition by citizens, the Union Cabinet cleared the introduction of the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 in Parliament on 24th September. This happened in a tearing hurry even as the NAC was examining the UID proposal. This was uncalled for and it provides robust grounds for scrutiny.

Not only that fearing the outcome of the NAC deliberations and its inferences, Nandan Nilekani avoided NAC to escape having to answer the questions about UID on 30th August, 2010. It appears that the chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has roped in Prime Minister to help him wriggle out by launching UID on 29th September in Maharashtra in order to present a fait accompli of sort to the NAC.

In such circumstances, it is indeed a relief to know that the NAC is opposed to UID//Aadhar project.

It is quite sad that both the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI Authority and PM’s Council are in such a great awe of a regressive idea that so far it has failed to examine the reasons of governments of US, Australia and UK to scrap similar projects. So much so that even as the Bill will be introduced in the Indian Parliament, the British Parliament will be scrapping it because the democratic mandate of UK citizens and all the democracies is against such an invasive project.

One Noble Prize winner too has underlined how it raises questions of personal liberty. Other world renowned social scientists have termed it as akin to allotting “prisoner numbers” to citizens. This is quite worrisome that in such a context our political leaders in general are so frozen in their passivity that they are not reaching out to sincerely address and respond to the gnawing concerns about a project that have fascist roots.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) reminds one of what happened from the period preceding Adolf Hitler's arrival to January 1933 when he occupied power, to Second World War and since then and International Business Machines (IBM)’s role with its punch card and card sorting technology. The way UID project is being bulldozed in the name of PDS, Education, Public Health, NREGA and now migrant workers is highly dubious.

Unique Identity (UID) Number is a rare project which has unleashed the concept of massively organised information as means of social control, a weapon of war, and for the victimisation of ethnic groups, minorities and political adversaries. It appears that Nilekani, the co-founder and former chief executive of Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's second largest software company, has misled the key functionaries of Government of India into believing that he is deeply concerned about reaching the poorest of the poor with a 16-digit card (4 numbers are hidden?) to liberate them from poverty.

This proposed UID legislation authorizes the creation of a centralized database of unique identification numbers that will be issued to every resident of India but has failed to provide for provisions that precludes abuse of such a database for invading citizens’ rights to privacy and freedom of choice by national and transnational corporations like Vedanta and IBM. The legislation poses one of gravest threat imaginable as far as citizens’ right is concerned. It will damage citizens’ sovereignty beyond repair and has the potential to cause holocaust like situation in future through profiling of minorities, political opponents and ethnic groups.

UID/Aadhar project gives a sense of déjà vu. It is the same path which IBM (International Business Machines), the world's largest technology company and the second most valuable global brand traversed for targeted asset confiscation, ghettoisation, deportation, and ultimately extermination with its punch card and card sorting system -- a precursor to the computer – that made the automation of human destruction possible. This is a matter of historical fact and not an opinion. Indeed in the words of historian Benedetto Croce, "All history is contemporary history" and the lessons from history present a compelling reason against the UID/Aadhar project.

Therefore, we urge you to recommend and encourage our government to abandon the UID/Aadhar project like the governments of UK, Australia and US have done to safeguard and honour the non-negotiable rights of citizens.

Yours Sincerely

Gopal Krishna
Member
Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL)
New Delhi
Mb: 9818089660
E-mail: krishna2777@gmail.com

Prakash Ray
Convener
Jawaharlal Nehru University Researchers Association (JNURA)
New Delhi
Mb:9873313315
E-mail- pkray11@gmail.com

Note: Members of National Advisory Council include:
Prof M. S. Swaminathan
Dr Ram Dayal Munda
Dr. Narendra Jadhav
Prof. Pramod Tandon
Dr. Jean Dreze
Ms.Aruna Roy
Shri Madhav Gadgil
Shri Naresh C. Saxena
Dr. A. K. Shiva Kumar
Shri Deep Joshi
Ms. Anu Aga
Ms. Farah Naqvi
Shri Harsh Mander
Ms Mirai Chatterjee
with Smt. Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson, National Advisory Council

220 - The Kitchen Cabinet -by Priya Sahgal- India Today


The NAC members with the Prime Minister.

By Priya Sahgal, September 18, 2010

It is the most powerful club in the Manmohan Singh Government. And no, this is not the Cabinet comprised of elected members of Parliament, neither is it the Planning Commission presided over by the prime minister's best friend. Instead, it is the National Advisory Council (NAC), a think-tank comprising a handful of left-leaning liberals, civil rights activists, an agricultural scientist, a philanthropist and social welfare workers. Quite an unlikely bunch to walk the corridors of power in a Government led by a free market economist. What gives the NAC the power to veto any government bill or find fault with the implementation of a Cabinet decision is the simple fact that its headed by the all-powerful Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
 

Despite the NAC being reconstituted only three months ago, it has already rejected the draft bills of two of the UPA-II's trophy legislations, the National Food Security Bill and the Communal Violence Bill and is busy preparing its own version of these which will then be circulated for the Government to "work on". Some NAC members have criticised the implementation of two of the UPA's flagship legislations, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Right to Information (RTI) Act, while others have taken potshots at the Naxal policy, the UID scheme and the plan to set up an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC). Little wonder that the joke at Raisina Hill is that the prime minister has outsourced dissent to the NAC. Only Manmohan is not laughing. Instead, he takes every little note handed out by the NAC very seriously. He can't afford not to. Even if it means that his economics takes a sharp U-turn from capitalist to socialist and he is left shepherding a Government where the social sector gets more priority than economic reforms.

The Prime Minister seems to have outsourced dissent to the NAC, which is more critical of the Government's policy than even the Opposition. It is Sonia's platform to showcase her socialist vision for the country

The NAC is clearly Sonia's favourite governance accessory. When she had opted to stay out of government in 2004, she was looking for a credible platform to shape government policy. More so in UPA-I when the Left was hijacking the Government's socialist agenda. So she came up with the idea of her own advisory think-tank and filled it with left-leaning activists. "One of the reasons for winning the 2009 elections was the pro-poor measures implemented by the UPA, such as the MGNREGA," points out Cabinet Minister Ambika Soni. Both the MGNREGA and RTI were drafted by the NAC. Soni laughs at the NAC being regarded by some Cabinet ministers as a "jholawala" (a term used for Leftists) outfit. "Is the idea of food security for all a jholawala slogan?" she asks.
Soni says, "Look at the US healthcare bill that promises healthcare to all. The US is a capitalist economy, yet it has realised the importance of welfare programmes." And both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have been quick to learn the lessons from the NDA's "India Shining" fiasco-elections are won, not by GDP figures but by welfare programmes. With the NAC leading the way, the Government is too busy embracing poverty packages to celebrate growth figures. "How can you ask if the Government is doing "enough" for the poor when it is actually making things worse for them whether it is by hoarding 60 mt of food per year or by freezing the wages of MGNREGA workers, or by displacing forest dwellers on behalf of mining corporations," says Jean Dreze, development economist and social activist at the NAC, adding, "the Government has lost the plot on MGNREGA


 Sonia at a tribal rally

This is the platform from where Sonia hopes to showcase her vision for the country. "The UPA believes in inclusive growth. Our role in the NAC is to make sure that it is truly inclusive growth and that the Government enacts pro-poor legislation. We make sure that the ground realities are brought to the notice of the Government so they know whether their policies are being implemented or not," says Mirai Chatterjee, member NAC and director at the NGO SEWA (Self Employed Women's Organisation). According to Chatterjee, the next big-ticket agenda for the NAC, and hence for the UPA, would be health security for all. "The National Rural Health Mission has made good headway but there are some gaps at both the policy and implementation levels and our role is to bring these out," she says.
Another area of concern for some NAC members is the Government's handling of the Naxal problem as well as the UID scheme. Although these have not yet come up officially on the NAC agenda, this has not stopped individual members from airing their views. As Harsh Mander, another NAC member and social worker said, "We're all intelligent individuals with views". But suddenly there is a premium on these views because of the NAC tag. So, when Mander told the prime minister that the Government was losing the war on Naxals during a courtesy call, Manmohan made it a point to ask him why.

Under Sonia's guidance, the NAC is pushing forward an ambitious social sector agenda, shifting the focus of the Manmohan Government from economic reforms to development issues in a bid to woo back the party's rural votebank.

Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze, arguably Sonia's favourite civil right activists, have recently shot off a letter to Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi, criticising the plans to link the UID card with MGNREGA. They have also spoken publicly against the entire UID scheme, calling it an invasion of privacy. Now a harassed Nandan Nilekani, who is heading the project, is scheduled to make a presentation to the NAC before his project hits an identity crisis. "We are not a decision-making body but an advisory body. There are a number of such councils constituted by the prime minister, only this gets a greater profile because it is chaired by Sonia Gandhi," reasons Mander.

193 - UID an assault on individual liberty, say activists - Business Standard

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi September 04, 2010, 0:39 IST

The Centre’s plan for a unique biometric-enabled number to every Indian resident is facing opposition from social activists who say it will impact civil liberties — state-citizen relations and privacy.
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Members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) and other organisations have expressed their dissent against the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) — the nodal agency responsible for implementing Aadhaar.

The Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC)) had also raised concerns, objecting to the linking of the UIDAI project to the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.

In a letter addressed to Rural Development Minister C P Joshi last week, Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, members of the CEGC and NAC raised objections to the ministry's decision to link UID to job cards without consulting the council.

The UID is to be experimented first with NREGA workers linking their payments to their numbers. “It would be particularly dangerous and inappropriate to proceed with any linking before the legislative framework of the UID project has been worked out. We suggest that decisions related to the linking of UID with NREGA are put on hold in the meantime,” said the letter.

Dreze told Business Standard that UID is a national security project in the garb of a social policy initiative. “I am opposed to the UID project on grounds of civil liberties. Let us not be naive. This is not a social policy initiative — it is a national security project.”

He said the underlying implications of the UID was what has been stated by former intelligence Bureau Chief A K Doval in an interview to Tehelka — it was intended to wash out aliens and unauthorised people. But the focus appears to be shifting and is now being projected as a development-oriented initiative, lest it ruffle feathers.

Dreze said the UID will help achieve unprecedented levels of surveillance on ordinary citizens and this may have dangerous consequences for privacy civil liberties and social justice. Echoing Dreze’s view, Roy said the project is a threat to democratic norms and civil liberties and it should be opposed.

Anil Chaudhury, a member of Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), said the UID scheme violates right to privacy and the state can misuse it for targeted attacks and discrimination against certain communities.

Wilfred Dsouza of INSAF argued that a centralised identity pool is always fraught with risks. It can be hacked and misused by terrorists. He said the Labour Government had faced opposition from the Tories on similar grounds when it tried to introduce the Identity Cards Act 2006.

The UK Home Secretary had been quoted as saying that the “The national identity card scheme represents the worst of government. It is intrusive and bullying. It is ineffective and expensive. It is an assault on individual liberty that does not promise a great good.”