Aadhaar enrolment for newborns to be expanded to all states in few months

Aadhaar enrolment for newborns along with birth certificates is expected to be available in all states in the next few months, expanding beyond 16 states currently offering the facility, government sources said.

At present, 16 states have Aadhaar Linked Birth Registration. The process began more than one year ago, with various states getting added over time.

Work is on in remaining states and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) -- the government agency that issues Aadhaar numbers -- expects that over the next few months all states will be able to offer the facility, bringing added convenience to new parents.

For children up to 5 years, no biometrics is captured. Their UID is processed on the basis of demographic information and facial photograph linked with the UID of their parents. Hence, biometric update is required (ten fingers, iris and facial photograph) once the child turns 5 and 15.

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, nearly 650 schemes are of state governments and 315 central government-run schemes -- all of which use Aadhaar ecosystem and its biometric authentication.

As many as 134 crore Aadhaars have been issued till date. Last year, updates and enrolments for this 12-digit biometric identifier added to nearly 20 crore. Of this, 4 crore were new enrolments, a number that includes newborn babies and children up to 18 years. Only 30 lakh were related to new adult enrolments.

The sources said the aims is now to ensure that at the time of birth along with the birth certificate, Aadhaar is issued. UIDAI is working with the Registrar General of India regarding the same. The process requires computerised system of birth registration, and such states that had full computerisation have been onboarded.

The full list of states with Aadhaar Linked Birth Registration was not immediately available.

Sources said that in 16 states whenever a birth certificate is issued, a message pings to the UIDAI system, following which enrolment ID number is generated. Aadhaar is generated as soon as details such as photo and address of the child is captured in the system. Birth Registrars, in many cases, are Aadhaar enrolment agents also, so they will be able to enrol for Aadhaar, sources said.