Exclusion By Design: AI, Identification Failures, And The Margins Of Citizenship In India
- IJLLR Journal
- May 3
- 2 min read
Apala Ghosh, PhD Research Scholar, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University
ABSTRACT
This paper explores how AI-mediated identification systems are reshaping the contours of citizenship in India by embedding forms of exclusion within infrastructures designed to secure inclusion. As digital identification becomes increasingly central to welfare distribution, governance, and access to public services, citizenship is no longer experienced solely as a stable legal status but as an ongoing process of verification, authentication, and recognition. In this context, the paper asks: what happens to citizenship when its enactment depends on successful interaction with technological systems?
Drawing on the expansion of biometric and data-driven identification within India’s governance architecture, the analysis argues that these systems do not merely operationalise citizenship but actively reconstitute its boundaries by defining who is legible to the state. Focusing on points of breakdown—such as biometric mismatches, data inconsistencies, and infrastructural constraints—the paper demonstrates that exclusion is not simply an accidental failure of implementation but a structural feature of standardised, machine-readable governance. These exclusions are further intensified by forms of administrative and algorithmic opacity, where decision-making processes remain difficult to contest and responsibility is dispersed across technical and institutional actors.
The paper’s central contribution lies in conceptualising these dynamics as “exclusion by design,” a condition in which the technical logics of efficiency, standardisation, and scalability produce new margins of citizenship that are neither fully visible nor easily addressed within existing legal frameworks. By situating the Indian case within broader debates on surveillance and governance, the paper also considers how such models of digitally mediated citizenship may circulate globally, raising critical questions about accountability, recognition, and the future of political membership in an increasingly data-driven system of governance.
Keywords: Algorithmic governance, Citizenship, Surveillance, Digital identification, Exclusion by design, Datafication, India, AI and governance, Accountability, Global South
