The Andhra Pradesh Government Doctors Association (APGDA) has opposed the facial recognition and biometric attendance system on grounds of technological and practical difficulties, according to a report by Hans India. The doctors have appealed to the government to revert to the old attendance system. President of APGDA, Dr Pidakala Syamsundar, said that expecting doctors to go for facial recognition, biometric attendance and signatures multiple times during the day is an irrational move. Additionally, Syamsundar also highlighted that not all doctors use smartphones and that the ones using them do not carry it all the time as they work under emergency situations. In that case, there are uncertainties over how such doctors can register their attendance and abide by the rules. This ends up interfering with their work. The AP government in December 2022 had issued a government order mandating facial recognition-based attendance system for all state government employees from January 16. The order also covered autonomous organisations, all regional, divisional offices, local bodies and village-level officers too. The new system of “attendance by photography” is also binding on contractual employees and those working on outsourcing basis. Plans to bring in the facial recognition system in the health department for monitoring the works of health officials has been in news since October 2022. Why it matters: The growing trend of mandating facial recognition-based attendance systems for government employees and for university teachers in several states raise the issue of workplace surveillance in India. In a petition filed at the Allahabad High…
