national identity cards

The rollout of the Huduma namba is taking place over Kenya. This article traces the experience of one young woman Nyangi as she tries to get a card, and more broadly the problems and hurdles posed by the system of digital identity.

In India, the digitisation drive of services interlinked with offline violence, marginalisation and stigma make it almost impossible for transgender persons to be considered as people who deserve equal rights. Through the provisions mentioned in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, this article gives us a glimpse of human rights violations and denial of a life with dignity…

The system of integrated biometric database in Kenya, Huduma Namba, exposes multilayered challenges of statelessness, loss of basic human rights and availing government services. Through conversations with Mariam, a Nubian woman, we learn about the tedious and extremely long waiting period to obtain an ID card, without which people from ethnic minorities are not counted as citizens, and are…

As the Supreme Court of India determines the contours of the right to privacy and who in Indian territory has it, Mythri Prasad-Aleyamma critiques many of the assumptions around the opposition to Aadhar. This critique is grounded in the differences of how surveillance and privacy are known and experienced by those who are vulnerable for varied reasons, but especially those who are migrants or…