Institutionalising national ID cards
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
THE immediate past caretaker government prepared and distributed voters' identity cards to over 50 million people during its tenure. It was observed at that time that these cards not only would serve the purpose of voting but also could be utilised while accessing a limited number of services from government as well as private organisations. A bill, titled, The National Identity Registration Act, 2009, was placed in parliament last week with the aim of formally institutionalising the process of issuing these cards. Under the past government, the cards were prepared and issued under a tight timeframe to mainly establish flawlessly the identity of all eligible voters in the country for holding the elections scrupulously. But now, the government aims to make it an institutional arrangement and, as the name of the bill suggests, it would be described as registration of national identity (ID) and issuance of cards to that end. Therefore, one may expect that the cards would not be limited largely for the purpose of voting but also for progressively meeting other vital needs of the individuals and the state for the purpose of enumeration, statistical information and providing or receiving of services.
The ID cards in their present form include very brief information about the name, date of birth, photos and residential addresses of their holders. The same can be helpful in establishing the genuineness of a person's declared identity. But it still leaves a lot desired. For the cards are prepared by computers and the data are also stored electronically. There is thus much potential advantage in the system that remains untapped. While keeping the cards in their present form, it should be possible, while preparing them to ask their intended recipients, to provide some additional information like their occupations, number of children, gross annual income, disposable income, savings, etc. All such information and more can then be used in diverse areas for national level planning. The same can also be accessed by private groups for their market research or pure research covering diverse fields. The ones, who are now in possession of these cards, can be asked to provide these supplementary information to be added to the data they provided during the preparation of the voters' list and the identity cards.
It is, thus, time for the ID cards to graduate out of their present uses for mainly voting to other important uses. The Election Commission (EC) will remain as the point of registration for the cards or their re-registration on expiry of their validity after 15 years as proposed in the Act. But the EC only symbolically presided over the preparation of these cards in the past. The process of actually getting the information on the voters and putting them in computer data bases, amending them and finally issuing them, were the tasks entrusted to the army personnel who accomplished the same efficiently and above reproach. So, using of the services of the army personnel who were engaged in the preparation of these cards can be considered also for collecting extended information on the existing voters and the new ones who would be registering from now on.
In sum, the process of the preparation of the ID cards should be a dynamic one. Besides, necessary measures should be there to prevent production of fake ID cards since a few cases of forgery have already been detected. Now that the entire system is going to be institutionalised, it can be gradually built up over a period of time to serve as an invaluable data bank for the population in the vital interest of all kinds of planning exercises.
The ID cards in their present form include very brief information about the name, date of birth, photos and residential addresses of their holders. The same can be helpful in establishing the genuineness of a person's declared identity. But it still leaves a lot desired. For the cards are prepared by computers and the data are also stored electronically. There is thus much potential advantage in the system that remains untapped. While keeping the cards in their present form, it should be possible, while preparing them to ask their intended recipients, to provide some additional information like their occupations, number of children, gross annual income, disposable income, savings, etc. All such information and more can then be used in diverse areas for national level planning. The same can also be accessed by private groups for their market research or pure research covering diverse fields. The ones, who are now in possession of these cards, can be asked to provide these supplementary information to be added to the data they provided during the preparation of the voters' list and the identity cards.
It is, thus, time for the ID cards to graduate out of their present uses for mainly voting to other important uses. The Election Commission (EC) will remain as the point of registration for the cards or their re-registration on expiry of their validity after 15 years as proposed in the Act. But the EC only symbolically presided over the preparation of these cards in the past. The process of actually getting the information on the voters and putting them in computer data bases, amending them and finally issuing them, were the tasks entrusted to the army personnel who accomplished the same efficiently and above reproach. So, using of the services of the army personnel who were engaged in the preparation of these cards can be considered also for collecting extended information on the existing voters and the new ones who would be registering from now on.
In sum, the process of the preparation of the ID cards should be a dynamic one. Besides, necessary measures should be there to prevent production of fake ID cards since a few cases of forgery have already been detected. Now that the entire system is going to be institutionalised, it can be gradually built up over a period of time to serve as an invaluable data bank for the population in the vital interest of all kinds of planning exercises.