Latest news with #PragyaPrasun
Scroll.in
04-05-2025
- Business
- Scroll.in
Video: Why activists unable to blink an eye went to court against E-KYC
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the revision of E-KYC norms to enable people with visual impairment or facial disfigurement to access banking and other services. E-KYC is the electronic or digital version of Know Your Customer, a process mandated by the Reserve Bank of India that institutions use to verify the identities of their customers. The judgement comes as a response to two writ petitions filed before the Supreme Court which highlighted the exclusionary nature of the current digital KYC norms. 'You need to blink an eye when you do your E-KYC,' said Amar Jain, a visually-impaired corporate lawyer who is one of the petitioners in the case. 'This is a real problem for persons with blindness and persons who have faced acid attack.' Pragya Prasun, the second petitioner in the case, had faced trouble with buying a mobile SIM card as well as opening a bank account. 'My concern was that slowly, it should not spread everywhere where if I have to get a ticket, boarding pass, or cash from an ATM, I'll have to blink an eye to use that facility,' she said. Ruling that the right to digital access is an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court issued twenty directions to make the E-KYC process accessible, holding that acid attack survivors and person with visual impairment are entitled to the protection under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. 'The fundamental problem with anything that we do in our system is that unless you start involving people with disabilities, as co-creators of the processes, you are going to exclude them forever,' said Amar Jain. 'When we created physical infrastructure, we did not consider the needs of people with disability. Now they are doing this with digital infrastructures as well,' he added.
Economic Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Economic Times
SC ruling on digital accessibility as part of right to life and liberty can bridge the digital divide
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment in the 'Pragya Prasun vs Union of India' and 'Amar Jain vs Union of India' cases, declaring the right to digital access as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. Authored by Justice R Mahadevan, and pronounced by a bench including Justice J B Pardiwala, the ruling addressed the exclusion of persons with disabilities, particularly acid attack survivors and visually impaired individuals, from digital KYC (eKYC) court issued 20 directions to revise eKYC norms, ensuring accessibility for these groups, who face challenges with tasks like blinking or facial positioning during biometric registration due to physical impairments. This judgment, prompted by PILs highlighting systemic barriers, underscores the state's obligation to create an inclusive digital ecosystem, as digital platforms are now gatekeepers to essential services like banking, e-governance and welfare schemes. Wednesday's ruling invoked Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution - 'golden triangle' of fundamental rights, guaranteeing equality, non-discrimination, and protection of life and liberty - to emphasise substantive equality, aiming to bridge the digital divide for marginalised court judgment is very welcome. It sets right a gap persisting for some years now with the introduction and proliferation of digital technologies in governance ecosystems. For a nation striving to position itself as a global digital leader, ensuring universal digital access isn't merely a policy goal, it's an imperative for inclusive development and equitable participation in the digital to 2011 census, about 2.68 cr - 1.50 cr male and 1.18 cr female - Indians live with disabilities, constituting 2.21% of the population. Of these, around 50.6 lakh individuals have visual impairments, and 19.9 lakh have speech or vocal disabilities. These figures, though dated, highlight the scale of the challenge, very likely amplified by population growth and underreporting. The digital divide further exacerbates exclusion, with rural populations, senior citizens, economically weaker sections and linguistic minorities often lacking access to devices or digital literacy. For instance, many poor households cannot afford smartphones, and those seeking work through MGNREGA portal face barriers due to complex registration processes and lack of technical know-how, perpetuating further economic the right to digital access under Article 21 in the age of AI presents both opportunities and challenges. AI-driven assistive technologies - such as screen readers, voice recognition and alternative authentication methods - can certainly enhance accessibility for persons with different abilities. For example, AI could enable voice-based eKYC for visually-impaired users, or adaptive interfaces for those with facial ruling's impact reverberates across multiple domains, necessitating robust policy interventions. Digital accessibility as a fundamental right demands that government portals, educational platforms and fintech services adopt universal design principles, integrating tools like audio descriptions and tactile interfaces that the Supreme Court has also listed in the judgment. Reforming eKYC requires policymakers to redefine 'live photograph' in RBI's 'KYC Master Direction' and introduce alternatives like biometric exemptions or offline verification. Bridging the digital divide calls for initiatives like Digital India to prioritise rural connectivity and digital literacy programmes, ensuring that economically weaker sections can access schemes like MGNREGA. Economic opportunities can be unlocked by enabling persons with disabilities to participate in digital banking and ecommerce, boosting inclusion. Privacy and security in accessible systems must balance relaxed KYC requirements with robust encryption to prevent fraud. Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 should guide accessibility standards, with mandatory audits for government and private platforms. Globally, India can advocate for digital inclusion at fora like UN, setting a precedent for equitable digital ecosystems. To ensure inclusivity for the 19.9 lakh individuals who can see but cannot speak, policymakers must adopt targeted technological and policy interventions. For this group, integrating text-based and visual input systems into digital platforms, such as eKYC processes, will allow users to type responses or select visual cues (e.g., OTP entry or image selection) instead of relying on voice authentication. This will ensure seamless access to banking and government gesture-based interfaces, powered by AI-driven computer vision, should be implemented to enable users to confirm actions through hand movements or facial expressions, as seen in platforms like MGNREGA portals, enhancing independent navigation. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) apps should be pre-installed on subsidised smartphones distributed through government schemes, enabling users to generate text or visual outputs for identity verification and address technical challenges, AI-powered visual authentication systems, focusing on static cues like iris scanning, should be standardised across platforms, with compliance enforced under the RPwD Act, while ensuring data privacy through encrypted systems aligned with Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Clearly, quick implementation of provisions would provide much-needed succour for many being denied digital access and protection so far, due to their vulnerabilities.
NDTV
30-04-2025
- Business
- NDTV
How Acid Attack Survivor's KYC Struggle Led To Top Court's Landmark Verdict
New Delhi: The Supreme Court's landmark judgment, stressing that digital access is intrinsic to the right to life, follows a long legal battle led by an acid attack survivor whose inability to blink had become an obstacle in opening a bank account in her name. In July 2023, acid attack survivor Pragya Prasun went to an ICICI bank branch to open a bank account. She could not complete the Digital KYC process as bank staff insisted that she must blink her eyes to fulfill the requirement of a "live photograph". Owing to the injuries she had suffered in the acid attack, Pragya Prasun could not blink. She was told that the mandatory requirement of proving a customer's 'liveness' under the Reserve Bank of India-regulated KYC process can only be fulfilled when a customer blinks his/her eyes before the camera and this could be matched with the photograph. Pragya Prasun later raised the issue on social media, triggering outrage. Later, a bank executive reached out to her and told her that they could make an exception for her. But for Pragya Prasun, this was not enough. She realised many like her continue to face similar problems and decided to approach the court. Pragya Prasun faced the same problem while trying to purchase a SIM card. She was asked to blink and she could not. She eventually had to buy a SIM card in her spouse's name. "Affronted by such indignity and humiliation, the Petitioner No. 1 took to social media and launched an online campaign titled, "#IWontBlink", to raise awareness about the non-inclusive policy mandating the Digital KYC/e-KYC process which fails to cater to the needs of the disabled, and the lack of implementation of the inclusive and disabled-friendly policy regarding offline/physical KYC process," the petition filed by her lawyer Nitin Saluja says. Pragya Prasun's petition was clubbed with similar petitions by people struggling to clear KYC verification due to visual problems. Nearly two years after Pragya Prasun's harrowing experience at the bank, the Supreme Court today ruled that digital access is a fundamental right and directed the Centre to ease the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) process for those with visual or facial impairment. "Right to digital access is an intrinsic component of right to life under Article 21," the court said. "We have held there is need for change in KYC processes for the disabled. We have given 20 directions. The petitioners who suffer from acid attacks and blindness have been unable to complete KYC process... due to facial disfigurements. Constitutional provisions confer a statutory right on the petitioners to be accommodated in the KYC process. It is imperative that digital KYC guidelines are revised with the accessibility code. In the contemporary era, where economic opportunities etc. is through digital (access) Article 21 needs to be re-interpreted in light of such technology and the digital divide increases," the court said. "The digital divide, characterised by unequal access to digital infrastructure, skills and content, continues to perpetuate systematic exclusion not only of persons with disabilities but also of large sections of rural populations, senior citizens, economically weaker communities and linguistic minorities," the bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan said. The Supreme Court stressed that it was the obligation of the State to design an inclusive digital ecosystem that is accessible to all, including those from marginalised and vulnerable sections. The court noted that many welfare schemes of the government, including those linked to healthcare, now rely on digital infrastructure and this has made bridging the digital divide a must for ensuring a dignified life. The top court said all government portals, learning platforms, and financial technology services must be accessible to all.
