Over the years, the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) and the Union government have been enforcing Aadhaar as a unique ID on every resident without even providing any solution to issues faced by common people. Without a proper and ‘leakproof’ solution, several residents are finding it difficult to face situations where they are 'mandatorily' asked by everyone, from government to private parties, to provide an Aadhaar for anyting and everything. This is notwithstanding the inherent issues embedded in the UIDAI systems.
Noted activist Jean Dreze, who has spent decades working with India's poorest people, shared the case of Sangeeta Kumari, who is being forced to run from pillar to post to retrieve her lost Aadhaar. Mr Dreze received the information from Dheeraj Kumar.
In a series of posts on X, Mr Dreze says, "Sangeeta Kumari lost her Aadhaar number and cannot retrieve it. First, she was told to re-enrol, and when that failed, the UIDAI helpline told her to 'find out your date of birth!'"
The staff at UIDAI's Aadhaar helpline are clueless about handling the case of lost Aadhaar. When Ms Kumari tried to re-enroll, her application was rejected, stating, "Your enrolment is rejected due to data/process reasons. You may go for re-enrolment OR re-updation, please if not yet done so far."
Mr Dreze says an authorised operator from UIDAI for Aadhaar told her that, "The problem can be solved if the rejection slip is sent to the UIDAI's regional office (RO) in Ranchi and Sangeeta pays a ‘fee’ of Rs1,200. Or, he says, she can go to the RO in Ranchi."
The only thing, Mr Dreze says, is Ms Kumari cannot afford to visit Ranchi or pay the fee of Rs1,200.
"UIDAI urgently needs to address many problems regarding her lost Aadhaar: (1) lack of local solution, (2) lack of clarity about any solution and (3) cluelessness of helpline staff and authorised operators," Mr Dreze says.
This is quite shocking because, over the years, UIDAI and the Union government have consistently denied every issue with Aadhaar. In fact, the government told the Lok Sabha that residents can retrieve their lost enrolment ID (EID) or unique identification (UID) number by filling in the required details on UIDAI myAadhaar portal under its link
https://myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/retrieve-eid-uid.
In July 2022, responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the then minister of state for electronics and information technology (MeitY), said, "UIDAI also permits residents to update their demographic details such as name (minor change), date of birth, gender and address through the online myAadhaar portal. With regard to provisions available for retrieval of Aadhaar, residents can retrieve their lost EID or UID number by filling in the required details on UIDAI myAadhaar portal under the link: https://myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/retrieve-eid-uid. Residents can also retrieve their lost EID/UID by visiting the nearest Aadhaar enrolment centre or by calling UIDAI call centre 1947. For retrieving the EID or UID, residents are to provide their demographic details properly." (
Read: Nearly 6 Lakh 'Duplicate' Aadhaar Cancelled; UIDAI Spent Rs981.69 Crore in Enrolments & Updates: Govt)
However, the case of Ms Kumari highlights lacunae in the UIDAI system which can make life miserable for anyone who is facing the issues of lost Aadhaar.
One of the reasons for this, as pointed out by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) in its report in April 2022, is faulty biometrics and unpaired documents in the UIDAI database.
In its performance audit report, the CAG says, "All Aadhaar numbers were not paired with the documents relating to personal information of their holders, and even after nearly ten years, the UIDAI could not identify the exact extent of mismatch. Though with the introduction of inline scanning in July 2016, the personal information documents were stored in the central identities data repository (CIDR), the existence of unpaired biometric data of earlier period indicated deficient data management."
As per information provided by the UIDAI tech centre, nearly 475,000 duplicate Aadhaar numbers were cancelled as of November 2019. "This data indicated that on an average, no less than 145 Aadhaars generated in a day during the period of nine years since 2010 were duplicate numbers requiring cancellation."
"Uniqueness of identity of the applicant, established through a de-duplication process, is the most important feature of Aadhaar. It was seen that UIDAI had to cancel more than 4.75 lakh Aadhaars till November 2019 for being duplicates. There were instances of issue of Aadhaars with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issues of Aadhaars on faulty biometrics and documents. Though UIDAI has taken action to improve the quality of the biometrics and has also introduced iris-based authentication features for enrolment for Aadhaar, the database continued to have faulty Aadhaars, which were already issued," CAG says.
The auditor-general also expressed doubt about the collection of documents from residents and their management. It says, "All the Aadhaar numbers stored in the UIDAI database were not supported with documents on the demographic information of the resident, causing doubts about the correctness and completeness of resident's data collected and stored by UIDAI prior to 2016."
Despite being aware of the fact that not all Aadhaar numbers were paired with the personal information of their holders, CAG says UIDAI has yet to identify the exact extent of a mismatch, though nearly ten years have elapsed since the issue of the first Aadhaar. "Non-pairing of biometric data in the system with demographic information was not in consonance with the instructions issued by UIDAI and non-availability of personally identifiable information (PII) documents with the Authority, for those already collected from the residents, impacts the reliability of the Aadhaar database."
Last year in September, raising serious doubts about biometrics used in India's Aadhaar system, rating agency Moody's Investors Service says for people in hot and humid conditions, biometrics results in service denials. UIDAI, the agency that provides the 12-digit number, however, refuted Moody's opinion, calling it 'baseless'.
CAG had also expressed doubts over Aadhaar biometrics, saying that "During 2018-19, more than 73% of the total 3.04 crore biometric updates were voluntary updates done by residents for faulty biometrics after payment of charges. The huge volume of voluntary updates indicated that the quality of data captured to issue initial Aadhaar was not good enough to establish the uniqueness of identity."
Interestingly, the government also told the Lok Sabha that nearly 6%, or more than 60mn (million) dead people, still hold their Aadhaar numbers since there is no provision to delete or deactivate these numbers. In a written reply in April 2023, Mr Chandrasekhar says all states and Union Territories (UTs) were projected to have a population of 1.373bn (billion). However, only 94.83% or 1.302bn Aadhaar numbers assigned are live.
"At present, there is no mechanism to receive the Aadhaar number of deceased persons from the registrars appointed by state governments under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act for the registration of births and deaths, to deactivate Aadhaar," Mr Chandrasekhar says. (
Read: Nearly 6 Crore Dead People Still Have Aadhaar Numbers: Govt)
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Is Aadhaar the magic tool that will put an end to Bollywood’s favourite storyline of siblings lost and separated on trains, or fairs or parted from their parents, because a quick scan in a Aadhaar database will find anybody anywhere? The truth is vastly different.
UIDAI, which has tagged Indian residents with a number, has repeatedly told the Courts that it can only provide a 'Yes' or 'No' answer to any query on Aadhaar. It also stated that all biometrics and demographic information of Aadhaar holders is never shared with anyone. UIDAI even went up to the Supreme Court to oppose efforts by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seek access to its biometric database for investigation in a criminal case. Under these circumstances, how anyone can claim that a ‘lost’ person was united with his/her family by using Aadhaar?
https://www.moneylife.in/article/aadhaar-the-big-fat-lie-of-uidais-missing-person-found-propaganda/54544.html
1. Enter your name and mobile number.
2. Enter OTP received on mobile number.
3. Your Aadhaar number is sent to your mobile number.
I tried and tested is successfully with my Aadhaar number (which, of course, I already knew.)
Any system can have glitches in the beginning but for a country which claims to provide technological solutions to the world, to allow this to go on for 10 years means that it does not really care about its citizens.
Many countries issue such a number, as seen from the Wikipedia.
GoI must create a dedicated department with branches at the State level to document the problems citizens face and assist the individual to correct them.
This is the least a govt can do for its citizens, particularly for those that are poor.