Nepal’s National ID (NID) project, introduced in 2018, promised to create a unified digital identity for all citizens through biometric enrollment.
Building on our earlier pilot study Digitization of Identities: Efforts, Experiences and Effects, Body & Data now examines the broader social and political consequences of the National ID.
This study seeks to answer three key questions: Why is the Nepali state pursuing digital identification? How is the government executing its digital identification scheme? And how are citizens engaging with this ambitious biometric initiative? We aim to foster informed dialogue on the promises and pitfalls of Nepal’s digital identity project and call for collective advocacy to build a more inclusive, transparent, and accountable system of digital governance.