Title: Separate freedoms
(Why did the court extend the deadline on linking Aadhaar
to various services, but refuse to grant one for welfare plans?)
The SC in its interim order delivered on March 13, in the
ongoing battle over the validity of the Aadhaar programme, extended the
government-mandated deadline on linking Aadhaar to different services,
including one’s banking and mobile phone accounts, until it delivers a final
judgment.
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But, markedly, it refused to grant a similar
extension for notifications made under Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted
Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.
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These notifications make a person’s
entitlement to a host of welfare schemes, including subsidy programmes,
conditional on the individual possessing an Aadhaar number.
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Aren’t
citizens enrolled to receive benefits from government entitled to the same
freedoms as others?
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Originally, the state told us that by
providing every Indian a unique identity number, by collecting biometric information
from us, including our fingerprints and iris scans, the government can ensure
an equitable distribution of benefits to the poor.
But there were many problems with this vision.
- It lacked any legislative backing.
- Complete lack of care or concern for a person’s right to privacy.
- Government had barely conducted any disinterested study before the project was piloted to examine its costs and benefits.
- The Aadhaar Act of 2016, describes enrolment with the UIDAI as voluntary.
- But, in Section 7, it authorises both the Central and State governments to make Aadhaar mandatory for anyone wishing to receive a subsidy, benefit or service, for which expenses are borne from the Consolidated Fund of India.
- Although this clause, at the same time, demands that the government must accept alternate proofs of identity from persons without an Aadhaar number,
- since the law’s enactment the state has notified more than 130 schemes in which beneficiaries of different welfare measures have been mandated to enroll with the UIDAI.
- The government has also made a series of declarations under various different laws, directing individuals to secure an Aadhaar card and to link this number with their income tax PAN, bank accounts, financial services such as mutual and provident funds, and insurance policies, among others.
The consequences
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It creates a fait accompli on Aadhaar for
economically and socially deprived persons alone.
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Every day stories abound on denial to
individuals of one benefit or another — access to rations, to food, to health
care and to pensions — because of a failure in biometric authentication.
Title: Awash in water crises
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(Business-as-usual approaches to water
security are no longer sufficient)
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As World Water Day draws closer (March 22),
this year’s World Water Development Report makes it clear that nature-based
solutions can offer answers to our most pressing water-related challenges.
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Nature-based solutions hold great promise in
areas which also include sustainable food production, improved human
settlements, access to drinking water supplies and sanitation, water-related
disaster risk reduction, and helping to respond to the impact of climate change
on water resources.
Water hotspots
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Climate change is also impacting the global
water cycle with wetter regions generally becoming wetter and drier regions
drier. An estimated 3.6 billion people now live in areas that could face water
scarcity for at least a month in a year, with that number increasing to 4.8 and
5.7 billion by 2050. The International Water Management Institute estimates
that total demand could increase from 680 billion cubic metres (BCM) to 833 BCM
by 2025, and to 900 BCM by 2050.
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Along with water scarcity, there is the issue
of water quality. Since the 1990s, water pollution has worsened in most rivers
in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP).
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A Central Pollution Control Board report
indicates that almost half of India’s inter-State rivers are polluted.
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Nature-based solutions can address overall
water scarcity.
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Environmentally-friendly agricultural systems
like those which use practices such as conservation tillage, crop
diversification, legume intensification and biological pest control work as
well as intensive, high-input systems.
Case of Chennai
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Chennai in Tamil Nadu is a textbook example
of how nature is being ignored in urban development-posed challenges.
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Unplanned urban development and unwieldy
growth with no hydrological plan are causing many problems.
Final words:-
Nature-based solutions are crucial to achieving our
Sustainable Development Goals. Adopting them will not only improve water
management but also achieve water security.
