Increased digitization and policing of online content have led to greater surveillance of India’s population and privacy violations. The country is poised to become world’s most populous nation. Increased digitization of services has led to greater surveillance. Union Government maintains that surveillance is needed to curb crimes. The Data Protection Bill is pending in the Parliament. In the revised Data Protection Bill, the opposition has pointed out 40 objectionable provisions for union government and the proposed regulatory authority to safeguard privacy of people that evades accountability of the government and the regulatory board for breach of people’s privacy.

Across the country, the use of CCTV and facial recognition is increasing in schools, airports, train stations, prisons and streets as governments, both Central and States, roll out a nationwide system to curb crimes and identify missing children. Human rights activists have been warning for many years that CCTV and facial recognition technology can be misused for harassment and misidentification of people. A case filed by human rights activist, S.Q.Maqsood, in Telengana High Court in 2021challenging the use of facial recognition as incursive of privacy rights, is still pending. The case has exposed how harmful it can be. However, it is not the only form of surveillance in the country.

The biometric national ID Aadhar, with some 1.3 billion IDs issued so far, is linked to multiple databases including bank accounts, vehicle registrations, SIM cards and voters’ lists, while the National Intelligence Grid aims to link almost all databases of government agencies for citizen profiles. Meanwhile, policing of the Internet has also grown with greater monitoring of social media, and the most frequent shutdowns in the world. Governments say they are needed to improve governance and bolster security in severely under-policed India. Technology experts say that there is little correlation to crime, and they violate privacy and target vulnerable people to serve agenda of RSS Pariwar union government.

Now, everything is digitized. There is a lot of information about a person being generated and are accessible to government and private entities without adequate safeguards. At a time when people are attacked for their religion, language and sexual identity, the easy availability of these data can be very harmful. It can also result in individuals losing access to welfare schemes, to public transport or the right to protest whenever the government considers it necessary. RSS Pariwar union government has prioritized the Digital India programme to improve efficiency and streamline welfare schemes by digitizing everything from land titles to health records to payments.

World’s largest biometric data base, Aadhar, underpins many of such initiatives and is mandatory for welfare, pension and employment schemes, despite a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that Aadhar cannot be a requirement for welfare programmes. Yet, despite its wide adoption, millions face difficulties with their Aadhar IDs because of inadequate details or finger prints that do not match, and are denied vital state services. Government claims linkages with Aadhar bring better governance. However, it leads to a totalitarian society with government becoming fascist because it knows every individual’s profile. Objective is to track everyone from birth to death. Anything linked to Aadhar eventually ends up with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, policing and service agencies, all making dissent against the government very difficult.

The latest iteration of digitization is Digi Yatra, rolled out at Delhi, Bengaluru and Varanasi airports in December 2022 that allows passengers to use their Aadhar ID and facial recognition for check-ins at airports. Ministry of Civil Aviation says, Digi Yatra leads to reduced wait time and makes the boarding process faster and more seamless with dedicated lane for those using the App. But those who choose not to use Digi Yatra are viewed with suspicion and subjected to additional checks. Data of travel details is shared with other government agencies, which may be used to put people on no-fly lists, and stop activists, journalists and dissenters from travelling, as is already happening.

Lowest paid and other public sector workers bear the brunt of the government’s surveillance mechanisms. Municipal employees across the country are required to wear GPS enabled watches equipped with a camera that takes snapshots and a microphone that can listen in to conversations. Such watches feed a stream of data to a central control room, where officials monitor the movements of each employee linking their data to performance and salaries. Such data are also shared with other agencies of the government. Workers across the country have protested the surveillance. National Mobile Monitoring software has been made mandatory for National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme following its roll out in 2022. Women, who make up 60 per cent of two crore rural workforce under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme get 331 rupees for 100 days in a year under the Scheme. This system requires the supervisor to have a smartphone and a stable Internet connection, which is almost impossible in many rural areas. Picture of beneficiary workers if not uploaded, the workers are considered absent and denied their wages for the works. There are hesitations among women for their pictures taken. Such pictures are being used for facial recognition algorithms. Hundreds of women workers under the Schemes are holding dharna in Delhi demanding back wages and doing away with the App. Government is not addressing the surveillance concerns.

A long awaited data protection law is pending passage in Parliament. According to reports, the proposed Data Protection Bill gives sweeping exemptions to government agencies to intrude people’s privacy as part of their surveillance measures as also to the government. So much for the rule of based system of our constitutional democratic governance where people are the sovereign masters and the government elected by them is accountable to the people. Added to this, with National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) connecting all the police stations throughout the nation with all other security agencies on board, and police enjoying primacy among law enforcing agencies and the notorious police proclivity to make innocent criminals and perpetrators of crimes innocent by tweaking in the citizens’ profile, as are happening in the New India of Azadi Ka Amritkal, people are in for bad days as fascist (Big Brother) is watching!