You might have heard of the term unhealthy people or unhygienic people, have you not? But have you ever heard of the phrase ‘invisible people’? Just who are these invisible people and where do they exist? In fact, in the first place, how can people be invisible unless it was for some mind-bending technological or weird science’ mumbo jumbo? Well to put a context to this elaborate puzzle, invisible people are those who exist but without any legal or valid identity in the world. These are people who, quite simply, do not possess any valid ID that is recognised or considered legal in the eyes of a country’s authorities. That being said, it is rather baffling that world-over, there are close to 1 billion ‘invisible people’.
Yes, these are, quite simply, people who lack in any valid legal ids such as: no passport, no birth certificate and not even a bank card. In the absence of either of these, there exist a wide array of everyday existential crises for these people pertaining to housing or lodging and going about usual things such as finding a job. Consider this. Who would give you a job in the absence of a personal account number or in the absence of no proof of residence? But one doesn’t quite understand the plight of the ‘invisible people’ unless and until some harrowing World Bank statistic is thrown around highlighting just how grave matters really are.
Recently, the World Bank stated that a third of the billion people living around the world are children. Aren’t they- children- supposed to be the future of the world? Aren’t they slated to be the essential torchbearers for all positive and harmonious changes we so wish to see in a world already sullied by chaos, uncertainty, crises and, many a underwhelming scenario? But not everything is buried under a blanket of uncertainty where the fate of the world’s invisible people stands. A UK-based firm Simprints is trying to come to the rescue of the invisible lot. Using biometric means to register an individual’s identity- marking it unique for each and every person as a means to distinguish between identities- Simprints is attempting to make sense of the ensuing chaos surrounding the existence of invisible people around us.
At present, the UK company is working with charities in Kenya to provide digital healthcare records for people in poorer communities, who do not possess any official documents. How this works is relatively simple. For each person who gets their fingerprints scanned, an algorithm creates a unique identity- via an ID- that is linked to their health records. In this way, it ought to be said that biometrics as a technology, has completely changed over thinking in the last decade or so. Using these measures, firms like Simprints are giving millions around the world hope and access to possess better healthcare facilities and means. And before that- a unique identity that they cannot be cheaten off from.