AADHAAR REPORT
Introduction:- The Annual Report contains the information required to be forwarded to the Government of India under the provisions of Section 27 of Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act,2016.
- With Aadhaar entering its tenth year of existence a recent study covering 1,67,000 Indians by development consulting firm Dalberg, – ‘State of Aadhaar- A People’s Perspective’ report, provide valuable lessons for countries on improving public services for the vulnerable.
- Aadhaar is a verifiable 12-digit identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to the resident of India.
- UIDAI, is a statutory authority established under the provisions of Aadhaar Act 2016, under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
- Aadhaar collects only four pieces of personal information – name, age, gender and address – along with biometric data.
- In addition, Aadhaar has created new features such as virtual IDs that help protect an individual’s privacy.
- An important objective of Aadhaar has been to improve the ability of the state to provide efficient, transparent and targeted delivery of welfare services to a large number of residents who depend on it.
- The State of Aadhaar initiative was started in 2016, to contribute to a data-driven discourse on Aadhaar.
- In the 2019 edition the initiative surveyed over 167,000 households spanning 28 states and union territories across India.
- The objective of the study is to help identify which aspects of Aadhaar are working and are not working, to what extent and for whom.
- Positives: Aadhaar is India’s most ubiquitous form of ID today, which provided the first identity document for an estimated 65-70 million individuals. Some states have achieved enrolment levels higher than 99%. Assam and
- Meghalaya are exceptions with enrolment levels under 50%.
- Concerns: A sizable minority of adults and children still do not have Aadhaar. Some of those enrolled in Aadhaar have errors in their ID, fingerprint authentication fails for a significant share of transactions.
- 95% of adults have Aadhaar and 75% of children have Aadhaar.
- 8% of people do not have Aadhaar– or an estimated 102 million people.
- 80% of beneficiaries feel Aadhaar has made PDS rations, MGNREGS and social pensions more reliable.
- Positives: Aadhaar is becoming India’s default ID. Those who have Aadhaar use it regularly and across multiple services. 80% of respondents felt that Aadhaar had improved the reliability of government funded welfare services.
- Concerns: Still, marginalised groups, face Aadhaar-related exclusion from services. Moreover, nearly 34% of Indians worry about linking Aadhaar to too many services and fear losing access to a service because of it. For example: Around 0.8% of people experienced exclusion due to Aadhaar-related reasons from a key welfare service (PDS, MGNREGS, social pensions) which they had earlier received.
- ✓ Similarly, not only a family member’s Aadhaar is required for most school enrolments, in some cases, Aadhaar affected children’s access to welfare. For example: An estimated 15 million children missed out on one or more mid-day meals because of difficulties with Aadhaar.
- Perceptions, Satisfaction, and Trust:
- Positives: 90% of people trust that their data are safe in the Aadhaar system and 61% of welfare beneficiaries trust that Aadhaar prevents others from accessing their benefits.
- Concerns: However, a minority worries about the potential misuse of their Aadhaar. For example: 2% of people have experienced fraud that they see as being related to Aadhaar, diminishing their trust.
- Variation of User Experience Across States: Aadhaar usage varied across states by both frequency of use and number of services for which it is used. Aadhaar’s performance is bound to be influenced by factors that relate to both implementation (e.g., number of enrolment centres) and local infrastructure (e.g., mobile data connectivity).
- Every decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for service provision should be carefully considered as making Aadhaar mandatory can lead to exclusion from welfare and other services.
- Improvements in on-the-ground processes related to Aadhaar should be done by designing efficient systems keeping the most vulnerable sections of society in mind. As more services are linked to Aadhaar, easy access as well as seamless updating and authentication will become only more critical.
- Different states implement Aadhaar in very distinct ways, which represents an opportunity to innovate and learn from each other’s successful practices.