Enrollment: Digital Identity, Surveillance, and the Erosion of Choice
The year 2026 marked a decisive turning point in global governance when India, the European Union, and the United States jointly launched the Global Digital Identity Accord (GDIA) — an ambitious initiative marketed as “One Login for Humanity.” Built on the promise of seamless access to welfare, education, healthcare, and financial systems, the GDIA aimed to unify fragmented databases into one universal identity layer. Yet, beneath the sleek language of technological progress lay profound ethical concerns. The Enrollment reveals the human tension between a digital utopia envisioned by global institutions and the lived reality of individuals forced into systems they never chose. Through the experience of Mira Das, an ordinary teacher who refuses the new identity infrastructure, the story becomes a lens to examine the rise of the total surveillance grid and the fading meaning of consent in an algorithmic world. 1. The Announcement A. Perspective 1 — Mira Das (Citizen side): It...