Northern Indian State Implements Biometric Time & Attendance

“…its biometric employee tracking system is designed to operate independently of the national ID system.”

Government authorities in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir have implemented mandatory biometric time and attendance tracking for their own employees.

As Greater Kashmir reports, the order has been undertaken “[i]n order to ensure punctuality” in government offices. Employees who fail to enroll in the biometric system will not be able to receive wages, nor will contractors.

At first glance, the order would appear to be a further extension of Aadhaar, the biometric national ID program that is now used pervasively for citizen identification across India. The country’s central government first imposed Aadhaar-linked biometric employee tracking back in February of 2016. But in issuing its own biometric time and attendance order, Jammu and Kashmir’s General Administration Department indicated “Aadhaar [is] not mandatory”, suggesting that its biometric employee tracking system is designed to operate independently of the national ID system. Nevertheless, the move reflects the growing prominence of biometric technology in everyday life in India.

The biometric registration was mandated together with an order forbidding government employees from taking leave from their posts without permission from the heads of their offices.

Source: Greater Kashmir

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June 25, 2018 – by Alex Perala