Passage:
In March 2025, the implementation of the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) ID under India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 sparked widespread debate, particularly around issues of data privacy and surveillance. The APAAR ID, also called the 'One Nation, One Student ID,' aims to create a lifelong, portable academic record for students from pre-primary to higher education.
The Ministry of Education has promoted APAAR ID as a revolutionary step toward easing student mobility, academic credit transfers, scholarship disbursement, and employment verification. Each student's academic achievements, extracurricular records, scholarships, and skill certifications will be digitally stored and accessible via a single unique identifier.
However, privacy experts and civil rights activists have raised alarms about the extent of data collection and the potential misuse of students’ personal information. They argue that in the absence of a robust data protection law, there are no sufficient safeguards to prevent profiling, tracking, or unauthorized data sharing. Concerns have also been expressed regarding the lack of clarity on consent, data ownership, and grievance redressal mechanisms.
In response, the Ministry has assured that the data will be stored securely, used only with student consent, and accessed by authorized institutions for academic purposes only. Officials claim that APAAR will empower students and enhance transparency in the education sector. Nonetheless, calls for a comprehensive legal framework and independent oversight to safeguard data rights have intensified.
This debate highlights the broader tension between technological innovation for governance and the fundamental right to privacy in the digital age.