Biometric ID Project for Fishing Workers Behind Schedule

A project to equip India’s coastal fishing workers with biometric ID cards is once again facing delays, reports The Times of India.

It’s a largely a security effort, with the country’s security forces seeking to prevent potential terror attacks originating from the sea. The idea is to equip all Indian fishing workers with biometric ID cards, allowing the navy to more accurately monitor who is on the water.

Earlier this year, the Secretary of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries suggested that the project was proceeding too slowly, and asserted that government officials would step up efforts to get all fishing workers credentialed by June. Despite some overall progress, the pace is still lacking, if the example of Visakhapatnam is any indication: The Times of India reports that of the district’s 45,000 fishing workers, only 8,000 have received their biometric ID cards.

With the country’s national biometric ID program, Aadhaar, now having seen well over a billion enrollments, there is little reason to doubt that government officials will ultimately succeed in getting the fishing workers registered for their own specific IDs, but a district official told reporters that the aim is now to have all of Visakhapatnam’s IDs issued by the end of the year.

Source: The Times of India

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August 15th, 2016 – by Alex Perala