Identity crisis

Trust in the national identity card project has been dented, to the detriment of the public and the state.

Eight years after the government announced that national identity cards would be distributed “ very soon” following a pilot project, then-Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa finally started the distribution in Panchthar district in 2018. The photo of a 101-year-old resident of Phidim Municipality, Bhagwati Devi Bhandari, the first-ever identity card holder, clasping her National Identity card, was deemed symbolic of a new digital era in Nepal where a single chip promised to integrate identity credentials like voter ID, citizenship, driving license and so on. Meanwhile, experts were wary of the government’s ability to handle such sensitive technology. When the government made NID mandatory for obtaining social security benefits and retirement pensions last May, lawmakers were outraged. A petition was filed at the Supreme Court, prompting the court to issue an interim order prohibiting the administration from mandating it.