Bangladesh has drawn up a project to give every citizen one permanent identity card, issued at birth and used for life, at a cost of 91.93 billion taka.
The Unified Digital Identity, or One-ID, would replace the sequence residents move through now: a birth registration certificate after birth, then a National Identity Card at 18. Under the plan a newborn would get the card instead, and carry it through healthcare, education and other public services.
The Information and Communication Technology Division has packaged the work as Digital Service Transformation for Access and Resilience, or D-STAR. The Bangladesh Computer Council would implement it from 2026 to 2031, and the proposal has gone to the Planning Commission.
The government would provide 76.63 billion taka of that and a World Bank loan the remaining 15.30 billion.
Most of the money goes on cards and enrolment. A single line of 73.80 billion taka covers card production and printing together with the collection and distribution of biometric data, including fingerprints.
The proposal covers 180 million citizens, based on the latest census from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, with 200 million cards printed. Each polycarbonate chip card is costed at two US dollars, or 246 taka, to produce and print, with 123 taka more for distribution, putting the total at 369 taka a card.
Services delivered today through the National Identity Card, the Family Card and the Farmer Card would move onto the single credential, though officials say the details are not settled. Existing cards would gradually stop serving their current functions.
Information and Technology Division Secretary Mamunur Rashid Bhuiyan pointed to duplication as the problem, noting that some people hold two birth registration certificates and some two passports.
“The new identity card will be unique and permanent. Even a newborn child will receive the card. No other card will be necessary,” he said.
Information and Technology Adviser Rehan Asif Asad has framed the concept as “One Citizen, One Digital ID, One Wallet.” What data the card will carry has not been decided. The division says it is drawing on the experience of the United States, Singapore, Estonia and India.
The World Bank has financed digital identity work elsewhere in South Asia, including 50 million dollars for Nepal. Others have extended civil registration into a national digital ID rather than issue a parallel credential.
Sources: Prothom Alo
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
