Modi Govt to Give Aadhaar in the Cradle  #WTFnews

Almost everyone will have an Aadhaar number by March 2017, says UIDAI Chief Ajay Bhushan Pandey

Newborns may soon start getting Aadhaar as part of the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to provide the unique identification number to all residents by March 2017.Plans are afoot to click infants in the hospital cradle itself and link their pictures to the details of their parents for generating Aadhaar numbers, UIDAI director general Ajay Bhushan Pandey told ET.

This follows PM Modi’s directive to UIDAI, after the authority crossed the 100 crore mark in April, to expedite Aadhaar enrolments and cover the remaining 28 crore residents.

Pandey said the authority has gone into “campaign mode“ with an aim to give “almost every resident“ an Aadhaar number by March next year.

The focus is on enrolling those aged 0-5 years, he said, since only a quarter of the residents in this group have Aadhaar cards, compared to 96% among adults “We are now closely working with the RGI and various birth registra tion agencies, saying that at time of birth in the hospital itself, we can give Aadhaar by integrating it with the birth registration system,“ Pandey said. “Haryana has done it.We are approaching other states to do that,“ he said.

Under the Haryana model, the health department in the state functions as a registrar for Aadhaar enrolment, with the department personnel becoming certified Aadhaar operators for enrolling newborn babies at the birthplace in hospitals.

UIDAI also plans to certify staff in private nursing homes and accredited social health activists or Asha workers for enrolling the infants born elsewhere or at home.

States may plan to deliver services like immunisation, health benefits and education to the infants before they turn five on the basis of the Aadhaar number. Once they turn five, UIDAI will capture biometrics like fingerprint and iris scan.

Also, nearly 10 crore people in populous states such as UP and Bihar are yet to be enrolled by UIDAI. Overall, state and non-state UIDAI registrars are now procuring 15,000 additional enrolment kits, shifting existing kits in saturated states to Bihar and UP and 16,045 stationary enrolment centres across the country , including in UP and Bihar, are being made mobile to adopt a camp mode.

Pandey said regarding the 5-15 years age group, where 44% are tet to be provided Aadhaar numbers, UIDAI is advising states to have Aadhaar enrolment camp at least twice a year in every school and anganwadi.

UIDAI is not ignoring the 4% adults who do not have an Aadhaar yet either. “For adults, we have started a ve r y i n n o v a t ive s c h e m e ­ `Challenge’. So if you do not have Aadhaar, let us know on our website and we will get you Aadhaar. This pilot is open in Chandig arh, Puducherry and Goa…we will bring it to more states,“ Pandey said.

Pandey also said that UIDAI could take over more states from RGI. “The new Aadhaar Act is applicable to entire India. So therefore technically , Aadhaar will have to be done everywhere and the systems for permanent and regular enrollment facilities will have to be developed everywhere. So once RGI has come up to a certain level in states, these states will have to be taken over by UIDAI. Some discussions are going on with RGI and they are also quite favourable to this idea,“ he said.