1 June 2012 Last updated at 03:35

In pictures: India's identity scheme

People queue up at a unique identification number enrolment booth in Delhi

For the past two years the Indian government has been creating the world's largest and most sophisticated database of personal identities. Photographers Mansi Thapliyal, Shailesh Andrade and Gitartha Goswami have been documenting the exercise.

Inside a unique identification number enrolment booth

Since the scheme launched, 200 million Indians have already signed up for a 'unique identity' (UID). By 2014, another 400 million people are expected to have enrolled, fulfilling the scheme's mandate to cover about half of India's people.

Thumb prints being given for biometrics at an unique identification booth in Delhi

Giving Indians a definitive, portable identity is also turning out to be the world's largest biometric exercise - thousands of enrolment centres have been set up across the country to record the data.

An iris scan being taken of man in an unique identity number booth

The details of the person are fed into a computer before they are photographed and their fingerprints and iris scanned. Millions of Indians lack what identity scheme chief Nandan Nilekani calls "any form of acknowledged existence", which essentially ends up depriving them of their rights and pushes them into a faceless existence.

A girl giving her fingerprints at an unique identification booth in Delhi

The identity number promises to be a secure proof of identity for India's residents from "birth to death", as one official says. The number will help people to secure welfare benefits, pay pensions, receive salaries, obtain cooking gas and mobile phone connections, among other things.

A man getting his iris scan at an unique identification number booth in Surat, Gujarat

But the scheme has its critics who have raised concerns about access to and misuse of personal information, the risks of surveillance, profiling and how secure confidential information held by the government will be.

A man giving his fingerprints at an unique identification number booth in Surat, Gujarat

Authorities say that appropriate steps have been taken to ensure security and protection of data.

People inside an unique identification number booth in Delhi

There are also concerns about people not being sufficiently informed about the potential consequences of having an ID number before they sign up for one. Many people the BBC spoke to at enrolment centres said they were there because their friends had told them it "was a good thing".

A voters shows his identity card after casting his ballot in Uttar Pradesh in February 2012

The poorest of the poor are expected to benefit most from the UID. Even though many of them have some form of ID, such as a voters identity card, most have no proper papers and therefore no access to services such as subsidised food rations, a phone connection, even a bank account.

A man holding a card containing his unique identity number in Delhi

Many see their new 12-digit number, also called Aadhaar (Foundation), as a potential game-changer, bringing the poorest into the mainstream, reducing waste while ensuring federal welfare money reaches those who need it most.

India

In pictures: India's identity scheme

Share this page

Services

About BBC News