By The Chalo Team

In this three-part series, we highlight the on-ground experiences of migrants w.r.t. updating Aadhaar. We then discuss the importance of an Aadhaar card for interstate migrants and the institutional bottlenecks they face while getting it updated. We end with some recommendations from the ground to make the process smoother. This is the first part in the series on the challenges of updating Aadhaar cards and our insights from visiting Aadhaar Update Centres for the same.

Since the inception of Aadhaar in 2009, India’s biometric identity system which includes a 12 digit unique identity number has gained an almost universal footing among Indians. This is despite the tumultuous journey it has had in establishing itself. As per the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the statutory authority established to implement Aadhaar, over 99% of the Indian adult population has been issued an Aadhaar card as of June 2021.

No longer limited as an address proof, Aadhaar has been widely used as a biometric authentication metric at different points of service delivery - from Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) to SIM card sales. The State of Aadhaar Report of 2019 notes that Aadhaar has played a key role in enabling access to several DBT programs from pension, LPG and PDS ration), to MGNREGA, SIM cards and even bank accounts. 80% of the residents interviewed believed that having an Aadhaar made the delivery of these services more reliable.

The perceived notion of the power of Aadhaar in facilitating service delivery stands in stark contrast to the Supreme Court ruling in 2018 which made Aadhaar non-mandatory for opening bank accounts, getting mobile connections, and availing private or government welfare services.

Keeping up with such reports on the nearly universal enrolment into the Aadhaar system, Aadhaar related services (enrolment, updation and correction) is one of the most sought-after services in the Chalo Network. While there is no doubt that Aadhaar has made its presence felt in the Indian governance system, the technology-oriented infrastructure of the same generates several challenges across different sections.

At Chalo, we keep learning about the on-ground implementation challenges of Aadhaar from our Chalo Saathis. The team visited the areas they live in to understand how easy or difficult it is to get Aadhaar cards updated. In this newsletter, the team shares the challenges faced at Aadhaar Update Centres in the cities of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Odisha. The broad challenges are listed below:

We observed that there is a lack of reliable sources of information on Aadhaar Update Centres in urban spaces. Most bank branches, district magistrate offices, post offices, Aadhar Seva Kendras and Common Service Centres are authorised to update Aadhaar. These can be located through the UIDAI website, filtered by pincode.

However, the list shown on the website is not regularly updated. The field team found that some centres listed on the website no longer exist or have discontinued Aadhaar services. It was also found that some access points present on ground are not listed on the website. This was a shared experience across Hyderabad, Delhi and Bhubaneswar.

The lack of a reliable directory on Aadhaar Update Centres in turn proves to be a costly affair, especially in the cities. The longer waits at Update Centres and several trips to different centres (for reasons ranging from authentication issues, issues with online payments to non-availability of Aadhaar services) requires a lot of effort, time and money.

Additionally, the lack of awareness on the right documents required for each update, coupled with strict timings (in banks and post offices) leads to multiple trips, adding to the cost. We also realised that most of the facilitation centres that were operational in 2019 (pre-pandemic) were non-operational currently. However, this information has not not been updated anywhere, adding to the confusion on-ground.

In 2017, the UIDAI had mandated banks to set up Aadhaar enrolment and updation centres within their bank branches. This has been a point of contention for most banks as they face capacity issues to extend additional Aadhaar services to citizens. However, in recent years banks have started providing Aadhaar updation services.

Our team found that enrolment services were not available in the bank we visited in Bhubaneshwar. In Hyderabad, while the team members were able to update the Aadhaar at a branch, the service at the said branch is only available post lunch for an hour only. In Delhi, we were told that a cap of 25 is set for the day at Aadhaar centres for daily updates.

The issue of information asymmetry creeps in here as well, given not all bank branches in a city provide Aadhaar services. Our field team found that many UIDAI registries on banks providing Aadhaar services were highly erroneous (mismatch between banks which provided services and the ones listed) and limited in the information they provided.

The banks dedicate a very limited number of hours for Aadhaar related work, ranging somewhere between 2-4 hours a day.

Lack of manpower to provide the services was quoted as the primary reason for such short periods by the bank employees. Some cited that they only have the capacity to do 20-25 updations per day. They also spoke to us about account linking failures and other technical issues.

A few Aadhaar Update Centres cited a lack of clarity on the standard procedure for training their technical staff. The training programs prove to be inadequate as most people have varying levels of technological expertise.

Our Recommendations

The UIDAI website states that they have issued 131.68 crore Aadhaar numbers to the residents of the country. While the number could be correct, it is important to understand if citizens are able to use these Aadhaar cards, especially inter-state migrant workers who are continuously on the move.

Keeping in mind the tremendous impact Aadhaar has had on the digital transformation in the country and on the delivery of public services and transfers in India, it is important to solve the accessibility challenge it is currently facing.

Such innovations in the digital space will go a long way to ease the access to Aadhaar on ground and make the lives of migrants easier.

Stay tuned for the second part of our ‘Mission Updating Aadhaar’ Series to be out next month!