Rajasthan villager gets child Aadhaar-registered within 5 minutes of birth

A tailor from a village in northwest Rajasthan got an Aadhaar card for his first child within five minutes of her birth, health officials said on Thursday.

Kusum Kaur of Chak 3 KJD, not far from the Pakistan border, became the country’s youngest entrant to the biometric demographic data, multiple sources told Hindustan Times. The child was born in the community health centre (CHC) of Khajuwala in this district at 1.41pm on Wednesday.

The infant’s parents Harvindra Singh and Karamjeet Kaur, who live in fields outside the town 9 km east of the international border, are now waiting to get the document from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is a central government agency tasked with issuance of a 12-digit identity number to each resident.

“I was keen on getting the Aadhaar card for my child the quickest. We got it done at 1.46 pm yesterday (Wednesday),” Singh said. “I plan to apply for a Guinness record for the feat.”

The couple had “prepared everything in advance”, he added. “We chose the name of the baby. If it was a boy, he would have been Mayank. God blessed me with a girl.”

As the news of the Aadhaar registration spread, Kusum began enjoying celebrity status among the locals.

Dr Kailash Maurya, who is in charge of the Khajuwala CHC, said it was “our delight” to facilitate Kusum’s parents. “During check-up, they had told us about their desire and sought our cooperation. We arranged a laptop with internet and webcam,” he told HT. “The newborn’s name was registered with UIDAI in five minutes of her birth.”

Officially, a boy of western Uttar Pradesh bordering Delhi is the youngest Aadhaar card holder. Abhigyan Singh of Ghaziabad was on the UIDIA rolls within 10 minutes of his birth on August 8 this year. His family received the card in a couple of days.

Before that, on April 9 this year, Aakash Aatreya of Allahabad got his Aadhar card eight days after birth. Jodhpur’s Yana Dhoot got the document when she was 100 days old — on April 19 this year.

First Published: Sep 08, 2016 17:24 IST