30% of homeless, 27% of third-gender residents don't have Aadhaar: Report

Survey report by Dalberg says Aadhaar usage widespread, but problems remain

Thirty per cent of homeless people in India and 27 per cent of third-gender residents do not have Aadhaar, according to a survey by consultancy firm Dalberg released on Monday. The survey said 90 per cent of residents of Assam and 61 per cent from Meghalaya do not have the card.

Titled “State of Aadhaar”, the report said in spite of these deficiencies, the usage of Aadhaar was widespread in India, with 95 per cent of adults having Aadhaar and using it on average once a month to avail of some service or the other. Seventy-five per cent of children in India have the unique identification card as well. 

“Eight per cent of people do not have Aadhaar, or an estimated 102 million people, 75 million of whom are children,” the report said.

“This study distils insights drawn from two national household surveys on Aadhaar, conducted between May and September 2019, and subsequent human-centred design research. Capturing the experiences and perspectives of over 167,000 residents, together the surveys represent the largest primary dataset on the use of Aadhaar and, more broadly, digital ID anywhere in the world,” the report said.

By and large, lack of Aadhaar did not appear to be a matter of personal preference, the report stated. Almost all adults without Aadhaar said they want the ID. 

The majority of these people had not tried to apply —mostly because there were no local enrolment centres or the centre was closed, people did not know where to enrol, or they lacked the necessary documents.

The report stated that 90 per cent of those who had Aadhaar incorrectly believed it was mandated by law for bank account. Also, 90 per cent of the respondents felt their details are safe with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), while 67 per cent were satisfied in spite of being denied essential services in spite of having the card. 

“More than half of all people who produced Aadhaar to get a SIM card or bank account, said their provider accepted only Aadhaar, even after the Supreme Court ruling,” said the report.

Thirty-three of the respondents who tried to update found the process difficult and one in five did not succeed. 

“Four per cent of people currently have errors in the information on their Aadhaar card, while 15 per cent have an error in their linked mobile phone number; an additional 39 per cent have not linked a number at all,” it said.