Age proof not mandatory for Aadhaar enrolment: UIDAI official

Aadhaar is to authenticate existence of person with help of his biometric details: UIDAI official

It is not mandatory to provide age proof for Aadhaar enrolment but a valid document is required to correct the date of birth registered for the unique identity, a senior UIDAI official on Wednesday said.

"It is not mandatory to provide document for age proof for getting Aadhaar. Many people in the country may not know their date of birth exactly or have birth certificates. In such cases, the person is requested to specify his age and the same is accepted by the UIDAI," a senior official of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) told PTI.

He was responding to a recent report of 'goof-up' found in Aadhaar card of villagers of Kanjasa near Allahabad where date birth of every fifth person was printed January 1.

Similar report has come from a village in Rajasthan as well.

The official said that date of birth in such cases is taken as January 1 of that year calculated as per information shared by the applicant.

"There is no goof-up. It is an approved policy of UIDAI. However, if a person wants to correct date of birth, then he or she needs to provide valid document proof for the correction," the official said.

When asked about wrong date of birth entered even in case of people who claim to have provided valid age proof, the official said, "it is a matter of inquiry but they have the option to rectify it if they have valid document."

He said that the function of Aadhaar is to authenticate existence of person with the help of his biometric details.