Aadhaar enrolment of children still very low

Bengaluru: At a workshop conducted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for various government organisations and departments in the South Zone, various applications and multiple-use cases of the Aadhaar were discussed at length on Friday. While Aadhaar enrolment among adults is highly successful at over 99%, the problem is in the age group of 0-5 where it is less than 25%.

Mr Vijay Bhaskar, ACS and Development Commissioner, said that Aadhaar can be used in both inclusive and exclusive ways. While private companies, like Reliance Jio, have used Aadhaar to include millions as part of their service, state governments are still using it in a primarily exclusive manner. Mr Rami Reddy, DDG, Hyderabad, listed out various techniques and methods used to implement Aadhaar as a part of the e-PDS system in Andhra Pradesh.

By using the Aadhaar in conjunction with technology such as POS machines and Android tablets equipped with fingerprint scanners, they have been able to completely revamp the e-PDS system and the pension distribution system. He said that the AP government could save over Rs 1,000 crore in unclaimed ration in 2016 alone.

Other sessions on improving ‘Seeding & Validation of Aadhaar’ were conducted. Weighing the pros and cons of the Aadhaar system versus other conventional options, Mr K.R. Suresh, DIG, Indian Coast Guard, also discussed the application of Aadhaar in coastal security.