The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics is going to develop what officials say would be a comprehensive identity database containing demographic and biometric particulars of every resident of the country. The BBS will collect the data to develop the National Population Register (NPR) where demographic and biometric data will be stored permanently. Every citizen will be provided with a unique 16-digit identification number. The new initiative was discussed at a workshop organised by BBS at the planning ministry. It is expected to guide the government, non-government organisations and other stakeholders to identify, locate and communicate with every individual for administrative and legal purposes. The government said that the database will ensure proper distribution of social services and safety net programmes in the most efficient and cost-effective way, and offer a single window for personal identity verification.
Biometric NID was created for achieving the same purpose. So to what extent the purpose of the new database will be served should be investigated first for a rational study of why the NPR is essential involving a huge amount of money. The NPR is aimed to help detect and eliminate corruption and ensure security for all, but the state of personal data security is in shambles in the country amid the rise of digital fraud. As per the project proposal, data to be stored in the NPR will include name, sex, education, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, religion, duration of stay at present address, permanent address, and details of the NID, passport, mobile phone and birth registration. The NPR would accumulate all sorts of data in one place to be monitored by the government.
The government can achieve the project objective by gathering and sorting data from NID, passports, birth registrations, driving licences, mobile phone operators without setting up a new project for the work. Our concern is when the unemployment rate is high, the health and education sectors require more investment and the overarching poverty rate has worsened, the smart way to waste public money should be abandoned for now.
