Usha Ramanthan, a legal researcher and an activist based in New Delhi, has been declared a ‘human rights hero’ by Access Now, an international digital rights organisation, for her criticism of the Aadhaar programme, a bio-metric identification system where a 12-digit unique number that can be obtained by residents of India based on their bio-metric and demographic data.
She will receive the award this week from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet at Access Now’s annual event RightsCon, to be held in Tunis from 11 June to 14 June. RightsCon is a human rights and technology conference.
While announcing the award Access Now said:
“Dr Ramanathan is one of the leading critics of Aadhaar who has, since 2009, tirelessly challenged the controversial Aadhaar digital identity program in India, objecting to both the privacy and the security risks.”
They applauded her continuous effort against Aadhaar and her explanation of the ramifications of the 2018 Supreme Court judgement on Aadhar policy in India. In September 2018, the Supreme Court in India ruled Aadhaar could not be mandatory for several purposes, and it will not be required by private companies.
‘Tireless Efforts to Highlight Issues With Aadhaar’
Ramanathan has written and spoken extensively against Aadhaar. She has addressed issues with privacy, security and exclusionary risks of the bio-metric identity scheme.
Other than Ramanathan, there are a total of 4 winners this year for their 2018 Heroes category. Access Now also has another category of awards called 2018 Villains who unlike the heroes, have worked to undermine the principles of online freedom.
(With Inputs from The Wire and Scroll)
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