New Delhi: Enrollment for Aadhaar for newborn babies will be provided in hospitals soon, the government said. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said it was "trying to tie-up with the registrar of births to give Aadhaar numbers to newborn babies", ANI rpeorted.
Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit number issued by UIDAI and is one of the most important documents required to prove one's identity, address, etc.
"99.7% adult population has been enrolled in Aadhaar. We have enrolled 131 crore people and now our effort is to enroll newborn babies. Every year 2-2.5 crore babies are born. We are in the process of enrolling them in Aadhaar," ANI quoted Chief Executive Officer of UIDAI Saurabh Garg as saying.
On how the process would be carried out, Garg said Aadhaar card would be provided 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," Garg said.
"We are trying to give Aadhaar 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," ANI quoted him as saying.
On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet cleared a bill on electoral reforms, including one to link electoral roll with Aadhaar on a voluntary basis.
The Election Commission said pilot projects were successful and this step would weed out duplication and strengthen the electoral rolls.