The National Disaster Management Authority has developed the National Migrant Information System (NMIS), an online dashboard “to capture the information regarding movement of migrants and facilitate the smooth movement of stranded persons across States”, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla announced in a letter to all states and UTs on May 16. The portal is built on the existing NDMA-GIS portal. It is not clear if using the portal is mandatory for the states/UTs. The note also does not specify if the purpose of the portal is limited to the pandemic and if it will be dismantled and data deleted after the pandemic is dealt with. NMIS is a central repository that will allow the sending and receiving states/districts to seek and give permission for movement of migrants. States can upload individuals’ data (which they have already collected) in batches to the portal through an API. It is not clear if the API has already been built, or who is building it. What does the data on individuals include? It includes “standardized” data that states “are already collecting”: name, Aadhaar number, age, mobile number, district of origin and destination, date of travel, migrant labour/student/tourist/pilgrim/etc., current address, permanent address, states on the route (for a bus journey), mode of transportation — train or bus. It is not clear why the states need to collect migrants’ Aadhaar number (Odisha for instance, had mandated migrants to submit Aadhaar details before entering the state, but later made it optional). How will this data be used?…
