Government sources said Aadhaar enrollment for newborns with birth certificates is expected to be available in all states in the next few months, going ahead of the 16 states currently providing the facility. Currently, 16 states have Aadhaar linked birth registration. This process started a year ago, with different states getting added over time.
Work is going on in other states and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) – the government agency that issues Base Numbers – Hopefully in the next few months all states will be able to provide this facility, bringing additional convenience for new parents.
For children up to 5 years of age, no biometrics are taken. Their UID is processed on the basis of demographic information and facial photograph linked to their parents’ UID. Hence, biometric updates (photograph of ten fingers, iris and face) are required once the child is between 5 and 15 years of age.
More than 1,000 state and central government schemes today leverage Aadhaar for identification and authentication of beneficiaries, transfer of benefits and ensuring de-duplication. Of these, around 650 schemes are run by state governments and 315 by the central government – all of which use the Aadhaar ecosystem and its biometric authentication.
So far 134 crore Aadhaars have been issued. Last year, around 20 crore updates and enrollments were added for this 12-digit biometric identifier. Of this, 40 million were new enrollments, a number that includes newborns and children up to 18 years of age. Only 3 million were related to the new adult enrollment.
Sources said now the aim is to ensure that Aadhaar is issued along with the birth certificate at the time of birth. UIDAI is working with the Registrar General of India in this regard. The process requires a computerized system of birth registration, and states that had complete computerization have been onboarded.
A complete list of states with Aadhaar-linked birth registrations was not immediately available.
Sources said whenever a birth certificate is issued in 16 states, a message is sent to the UIDAI system, after which the enrollment ID number is generated. As soon as the details like photo and address of the child are entered in the system, Aadhaar is generated. Sources said that the Registrar of Births, in many cases, are also the Aadhaar Enrollment Agents, so they would be able to enroll for Aadhaar.