Row over Aadhaar diktat on teachers

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the Supreme Court has not pronounced its  final verdict on Aadhaar, the general education department’s decision  to ask teachers to file their Aadhaar details on the Sampoorna software has kicked up a row.

Sampoorna is a school management system project implemented by the education department  to automate the system and process of over 15,000 schools in the state.

Earlier, countering the central government’s  push to make Aadhaar compulsory for access to social welfare schemes, the Supreme Court had observed that obtaining the 12-digit Unique Identification number, which requires the holders to part with their  personal bio-metric data, and using it to avail of government subsidy was a voluntary exercise. Moreover, this was against the policy of the CPM and other Left parties which  have  opposed Aadhaar  saying that it is a  dangerous tool used for surveillance by both state and big data companies.

A teacher on  condition of anonymity said that  teachers have been asked to submit their service details on the website of  Sampoorna as part of linking the details of Service and Payroll Administrative Reposit-ory for Kerala (SPARK) to this website.

SPARK is an e- governance endeavour under the finance department of the state government operational since 2007.   The government has launched this project  to digitise all HR-related service and salary data of government employees. The teachers’ pay and other service details  are linked to the website.

Digital rights activist Anivar Aravind told Deccan Chronicle that the double-standard was evident in the past too. Even while the whole debate of Aadhaar was going on,  those  availing of the service from e-district portal had to give their Aadhaar details.

Those who join the health insurance scheme were also asked to give the Aadhaar details. The government decision to seek Aadhaar details from students who wanted to get scholarships had also invited widespread criticism, said Mr Aravind.