(For Uniting Aviation, I wrote an article exploring the global importance of legal identity, emphasizing its role in human rights, economic development, security, and the reduction of statelessness, while examining the challenges and technological advancements shaping its future.)
In everyday life, we often take our legal identity for granted – be it for banking or business, acquiring assets, accessing facilities, travelling, voting, or, however unpleasant, paying taxes. While there is something about legal identity that gives us a sense of empowerment and liberty, it also connects us to our nations, and their histories and geographies.
In modern times, because legal identity is a national responsibility, it has developed in diverse ways and degrees. Today, only about 17 per cent of people worldwide in about 50 States have well-established legal identities. The bottom 15 per cent constitute over a billion individuals who have minimal or no recognition of their existence. This is not just at odds with basic human rights, it deprives these individuals of essential services like health, education and socio-economic opportunities.
Sanjay Dharwadker 
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