UIDAI falls flat on its feet

As of February 15, 2018, the Government has issued over 117 crore Aadhaar cards with a countrywide coverage of over 89 per cent. In some of the States and Union Territories, such as Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh, Punjab and Kerala, the registration rate is over 100 per cent. The worst in terms of performances are the North-Eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Depending on which side of the fence–pro-privacy or anti-Aadhaar–you are on, it can be deemed to be a huge success or monumental malaise. But if there is one failure that was unanticipated, not-thought-through, it was in the area of governance, management, and continuation. The nodal agency, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), should have known that the real problem is invariably post-issuance management. At any given point in time, 10-20 per cent of the card holders will require changes–change of names due to marriage, new cards due to births, and change of address in an ever-migrating ecosystem. The authority seems totally unprepared to deal with such changes in 20-25 million Aadhaars on an annual basis. The number of branch offices for changes are limited even in Delhi, the nation’s capital. Queues are common; people line up at 5 a.m. reminding one the old ‘Socialist’ days of the 1970s. Government servants at UIDAI branches are ‘lazy’ or ‘uninterested’ and citizens have to make frequent visits. The issue has more critical after the Government has insisted on linking Aadhaar with almost everything– PAN, bank account, mobile number, subsidies, etc.

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