Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:
(a) whether the Government is aware of the fact that citizens living in hilly and remote areas face problems in enrolling for aadhaar and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether it is also true that those citizens are not included in the Government schemes and programmes;
(c) if so, the measures taken to enrol all the citizens for Aadhaar; and
(d) the steps taken to extend the benefits to such citizens?
(a) and (b): Aadhaar is issued to the residents of India. As on date, more than 88.5% estimated population has been issued Aadhaar all over the country. In the states of Assam and Meghalaya, the enrolment has started recently. Hence, Aadhaar coverage in these states is low.
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has suitably enabled all the State Governments, Department of Posts and Scheduled Commercial Banks to provide Aadhaar enrolment facility to the people. Additionally, there are about 40,000 permanent enrolment centres located across the country where a resident can enrol for Aadhaar.
(c) and (d): As per Section 7 of Aadhaar ( Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, the Central Government, or as the case may be, the State Government, may require an individual to undergo authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number as necessary condition for receipt of certain subsidies, benefits or services . However, proviso to Section 7 of the Act states that “if an Aadhaar number is not assigned to an individual, the individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service”.
In addition, UIDAI had also issued guidelines to handle exceptions, ensuring that no beneficiary is denied benefits for want of Aadhaar, vide their circular dated 24th October, 2017. Further, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Mission has issued a comprehensive Office Memorandum (OM) on 19th December, suggesting that no beneficiary should be deprived of his/her due benefits if he/she does not possess Aadhaar or in such case where Aadhaar authentication fails for any technical reason. This OM also details methods that may be adopted by the Implementing Agencies in such cases where a beneficiary either does not possess Aadhaar or Aadhaar authentication fails during verification.
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