The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On 7th july 2023 the 67 members present voted in favour of the National Digital Identity bill repealing the two disputed clause and adopted the Bill during the Joint Sitting of the Parliament.
MP Tenzin, Chairperson of the Joint Committee presented the Committee’s review and recommendations on the two disputed clauses of the Bill.
The new section on “The National Digital Identity Company shall be a public limited company with all the shares owned by Druk Holding and Investments Limited”; and
The new section on “The offences and penalties prescribed in this Chapter shall be in accordance with the Penal Code of Bhutan”
However, the Joint Committee recommended repealing both new sections.
The first recommendation was rejected on the basis of the convenience of the implementation of the Act.
“Since the budget has already been set aside for the Digital Project, it is for the convenience of carrying out the Digital Project. Additionally, a budget for future initiatives has already been approved by His Majesty the King. Thirdly, the committee did not believe that the public limited company’s privacy and digital security measures deserved being included separately in the Bill because they had already been accepted. As a result, we decided to repeal it,” said Tenzin, the Joint Committee’s chair.
The second recommendation was repealed as the chairperson of the Joint committee said that provisions on offences and penalties are already mentioned clearly in the Bill and also in the Penal Code of Bhutan.
With the adoption of the NDI bill, people are curious about its applicability. Member of parliament Tshering Tshomo explained how NDI works and its benefits.
Tshering Tshomo said, “The applicability of the NDI system is made possible by how much it can be integrated with the existing online system in the country.”
NDI will ease the use of G2C services. People need not remember their login information while using these services.
Other systems, like banking, telecommunications, and education, will be massively upgraded.
Date privacy and security are at the forefront of NDI, made possible through the use of blockchain.
“When Bhutanese travel abroad, NDI will allow them to present personal data required at immigration checkpoints and other facilities through the NDI mobile wallet,” said Tshering Tshomo.
The NDI Bill covers various aspects of inclusivity and accessibility.
It allows people with incapacitations to appoint guardians to manage data through the NDI wallet on their behalf. And People who lack digital literacy can also opt to do the same.
In organisations and agencies, employees can provide their data selectively to be handled by their employers, which is called controllership.
NDI mobile wallet can be used on slow networks, will have Dzongkha and English to choose from, and has voice recognition functions.
Hence, the NDI bill empowers individuals with these features and helps take a step forward in eliminating the digital divide in the country.
