Unique Identification Authority of India pulls up govt officials for failing to update Aadhaar details of children

Taking strong note of the district administration’s dismal performance in updating the Aadhaar Card details of children in the age group of five to 15 years, Bhawna

Taking strong note of the district administration’s dismal performance in updating the Aadhaar Card details of children in the age group of five to 15 years, Bhawna Garg, deputy director-general, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), on Friday, gave strict directives to government departments for using the provided Aadhaar kits in anganwadis (day-care centres), schools, and hospitals.

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“Gurugram’s progress in updating the Aadhaar cards of children has been unsatisfactory. Aadhaar automatically gets suspended if the details are not updated after a child crosses five years of age. It has come to our notice that the Aadhaar kits provided to departments like women and child development(WCD), education, health and post offices have not been utilised for almost a year,” said Garg. She held a meeting with district administration officials at PWD rest house.

The UIDAI has made it mandatory that Aadhaar issued to a child needs to undergo two mandatory biometric updates. One, when the child reaches the age of five, and the other, when he or she reaches the age of 15. “Before five, fingerprints keep changing so when the child attains that age, the biometric data has to be linked to the Aadhaar,” said Rajeev Gupta, district UIDAI officer.

In December 2019, the matter was also raised in a meeting with the state chief secretary. “As many as 30 Aadhaar kits have been provided to the education department, 27 to postal department, 14 to WCD and four to the health department. But none of these departments has used the kit last year,” said one of the senior government officials present during the meeting.

When contacted, Sunaina Khatri, district officer, WCD, said, “We currently have three functional tablets in the anganwadis of Sohna and Pataudi blocks. The remaining 10 have technical glitches and have been sent to Chandigarh for repair.” The education, health and postal department officials were not available for comment on Friday.