Aadhaar enrollment for newborns in hospitals soon

NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is planning to provide Aadhaar enrolment to newborn babies in hospitals soon.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Chief Executive Officer of Unique Identification Authority of India Saurabh Garg said, "UIDAI is trying to tie-up with the registrar of births to give Aadhaar numbers to newborn babies."

"99.7% adult population has been enrolled in Aadhaar. We have enrolled 131 crore people and now our effort is to enroll newborn babies," Mr Garg said.

"Every year 2-2.5 crore babies are born. We are in the process of enrolling them in Aadhaar," he added.

The newborns will be provided with an Aadhaar card after clicking a picture when a child is born. Biometrics of children below five years is not logged but they are linked with one of the parents. After a child crosses the age of five, their biometrics will be taken, UIDAI CEO explained.

"We are trying to give Aadhar numbers to all of our population. Last year we organised 10,000 camps in the remote areas where we had been informed that many people don't have their Aadhaar numbers and as a result, 30 lakh people were enrolled," he said.

"We allotted the first Aadhar number in 2010. At the start, our focus was to enroll as many as people we can and now our focus is on updating. Nearly 10 crore people update their names, addresses, mobile numbers every year," he said.

Mr Garg added that of the 140 crore bank accounts, 120 crore accounts have been linked with Aadhar.