On March 16, civic hospitals in Mumbai decided to scrap biometric authentication used for the attendance of doctors and other staff. This was considered a necessary measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has now drawn some ire for sending out a circular on May 16 recommending the use of biometric or fingerprint scanners for attendance again.
The aforementioned circular was signed by Dr. T P Lahane of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) and Municipal Commissioner of the BMC, IS Chahal. The circular mentioned that biometric attendance should be resumed in government facilities and civic hospitals for medical, non-medical, and para-medical staff.
Additionally, the circular also mentions that care needs to be taken to make sure staff wash their hands or sanitize it before registering their attendance via the scanner.
Civic officials mentioned that this decision was taken to keep a check on irregular attendance by the staff, adding “Biometric machines will help keep a record of employees, and rotation of duties can be rationalised to ease the pressure on staff working consistently for the last two months.”
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However, people are legitimately concerned about touching a foreign surface that is commonly accessed by several individuals in a particular day. Some malfunction or delay in scanning may also lead to queues of civic employees, thus making social distancing difficult. It is hoped that these scenarios are kept in mind before adopting any measures in civic institutions.
An RTI activist, Anil Galgali, said - “The central government had canceled biometric attendance system and there is no biometric presence in reputed hospitals, like AIIMS. I would request the Maharashtra government not to play with the lives of medical officers and staffers.”
While civic hospitals are underequipped to perform non-touch employee authentication for attendance, using a surface-based authenticator like the fingerprint scanners could prove to be a ticking time bomb.
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