Why did Santoshi Die?
She was a tribal
all of eleven years
from the village of Karimati
district of Simdega
in Jharkand.
At school
she did not receive
the midday meal
she was entitled to
by the government.
At home
her family had registered
in the Aadhar database
each member had a UID
(unique identity number)
Her family was also registered under
the public distribution system PDS
entitling them
to a monthly supply
of food grains.
Santoshi’s family
visited the local office
submitted their Aadhaar
and PDS and were assured
a regular supply of ration
But at the ration shop
the database in the computer
refused to recognise
Santoshi’s family
as enrolled in PDS.
They tried for half a year
but their Aadhaar and PDS
could not match
despite layers
of Identification –
1. name
2. address
3. UID
4. fingerprint
5. iris scan.
Under a digitized e-governance
it is the data and not the physical
presence of the person
that decides whether or not
a person is eligible for food.
A poor person can only access food
based on the availability of an Aadhaar card
a ration card and linked database of the two
a functional biometric-enabled POS machine
uninterrupted supply of electricity
as well as internet connectivity
and unquestionable ability
to recognize humans from their data.
After starving for four days
Santoshi Kumari died
Her death was caused
not due to lack of
availability of food
but only due to
lack of access to
available food
It was
death by
data.
Calligraphy and Found Poem by H Masud Taj, based on the words of Osama Manzar: “The Man who travelled to 10,000 villages”. The Found Poem is based on his article “Death by Data.” The Osama Manzar calligram can be downloaded from Academia. Osama Manzar's mission is to teach rural Indians the use of the Internet and create livelihoods.
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