We love this idea of controlling ‘suspected persons’ and their movements, enshrined partly in the hukou concept. Read Sections 109 and 110 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), under which cops indiscriminately pick up ‘suspicious’ people, invariably, but not always, the poor. Read Surjit Singh Barnala’s Story of an Escape: Barnala, then CM of Punjab, vanished incognito for a few days and was picked up under these sections in UP. The history of such legislation goes back to English workhouses, where able-bodied vagrants were picked up and forced to work. And we carry these legacies not just in CrPC, but also in statutes like Delhi Police Act. Had one gone ahead with the hare-brained idea, these statutes, and perhaps the Foreigners Act, would have been used.

There is an extremely valid argument for introducing a multi-purpose identity card throughout India. For instance, Kelkar Task Forces on tax reforms and fiscal consolidation also recommended this. Other than security, this enables targeted delivery of public services, incorporation of subsidies and prevention of leakage. Technology also permits use of biometry. How can social security for the unorganised sector be delivered in the absence of identity cards? In the absence of an India-based ID, we fall back on PAN cards, passports, driving licenses, ration cards, voter cards and in Delhi’s original proposal, IDs issued by recognised companies. The point is a simple one. How many of the poor have access to such IDs? PAN cards aren’t IDs for everyone and never will be. For argument’s sake, what happens if Delhi cops confront someone from Sikkim? Those who live in Sikkim don’t pay income tax. Ipso facto, they can’t be issued PAN cards and for Delhi police purposes, may well be treated as foreigners. Why haven’t we gone ahead with the idea of all-India IDs? And when we do, we should make access to IDs sufficiently easy for the poor and reduce multiplicity. How easy is it for the poor, who don’t typically have access to gazetted officers, to obtain ration cards or open bank accounts? Why can’t issue of IDs be bundled with other schemes like say NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), so that the poor are not exposed to monopolies in issuing, with all the attendant problems of bribery and harassment? Has there been an attempt to incentivise demand for IDs, so that these costs are less than perceived benefits?

... contd.