Opinion On Using a Number

Nandan Nilkeni lived up to his reputation of seamlessness when he said that people wrongly think of the UID as a card,for it is a number. Your ego was barely resurrected when you thought you were a card,maybe a platinum,at least titanium,but now it dived for you are a number. It has to be in the non-negative quadrant or you could even be a negative number if the Statistical Commission has a chance at it,and produces green GDP. But jokes part,this is a fascinating and very useful concept.

On the same day,I was having breakfast with a thoughtful civil servant. (Yes Ramji,they exist!) We both agreed that it’s only the press reporters and the public auditors who believe that all the money spent on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a waste. It is obvious out there that that adivasi girl who was not literate,can now read and speak with confidence. But there are problems. I told him that Tatwa Masihi who does the evaluation of the SSA at my Institute and is one of those committed types,came up with a consistent finding that when an adivasi couple moves – and they are a migrant lot – the teacher gives them a transfer certificate which says the child is literate. They then don’t get the free lunch at the next place,and in any case their child has dropped out of the literacy race.

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But now,my friend told me,the child will have a number — and we will track h(er)im through anywhere they go. We had heard what Nandan was doing,and thought of using him even before he gave his now famous press conference. Now,isn’t that nice? Nandan is not only bruising our titanium-platinum egos and has provided the snoops the technology to track us,but is also keeping little girls in school! He is right in saying it’s only a number unless you use it. Attaboy Nandan,tum aage badho,hum tumhare saath hain. And don’t worry about the fellows snooping on me. The lady of the house keeps tab on me anyway.