Why in News?

• India has become the first country in the world to issue Biometric Seafarer Identity Document (BSID), capturing the facial bio-metric data of seafarers.

BSID:

• In India the BSID project has been taken up in collaboration with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Mumbai.
• The Government notified the Merchant Shipping (Seafarers Bio-metric Identification Document) Rules in 2016.
• Every Indian seafarer who possesses a valid Continuous Discharge Certificate issued by the Govt. of India will be eligible for issue of a BSID.
• Nine data collection centers have been setup at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Noida, Goa, New Mangalore, Kochi, Vizag & Kandla for issue of BSID.

Working of BSID:

• It introduces modern security features. It will have a biometric chip embedded in it.
• The security of the BSID card is ensured at various levels and through different methods.
• At the time of data capturing the live face is cross matched through passport photo using a face matching software.
• The card has two optical security features- Micro prints/micro texts and Unique Guilloche pattern.
• A software has been developed for capturing the facial biometrics and its authentication through the public key infrastructure.
• A record of each SID issued will be maintained in a national database and its related information will be internationally accessible.

Significance:

• The BSID is a marked improvement over the two finger or iris based bio-metric data, with modern security features.
• It will make the identification of the SID holder more reliable and efficient, while protecting their dignity and privacy.
• It will give a fool proof identification to our seafarers which will facilitate their movement, provide ease of getting jobs and help in identifying them from any location in the world.
• The new card is in confirmation of the Convention No. 185 of the International Labour Organisation on BSID. (India ratified the Convention in October 2015.