Aadhaar now must to avail grant for pregnant women

THE WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY ISSUED A NOTIFICATION ON AUGUST 4 MAKING AADHAAR MANDATORY FOR PREGNANT AND LACTATING MOTHERS

Pregnant and lactating mothers will need to produce their Aadhaar cards to avail the ~6,000 grant given under the Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana (PMMY), making it the latest scheme for which the 12-digit identity number will be mandatory.

The Union women and child development ministry, which implements the scheme, issued a notification on August 4 making Aadhaar mandatory.

Under PMMY, the ministry gives ~6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers for the first living child to partially compensate for the wage loss, so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after the delivery.

While a pregnant mother will get ~5,000 before the delivery of the child, another ~1,000 will be transferred to her account post delivery. “Every beneficiary desirous of availing benefits under PMMVY is hereby required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar or undergo Aadhaar authentication in respect of self and her husband,” the notification states.

Any eligible beneficiary seeking the benefit, and not possessing the Aadhaar number, will have to enrol for it within 90 days of registration at anganwadi centres or primary health centres.

In February, the government brought out a notification making Aadhaar mandatory for students availing mid-day meal in government school. A few days back, the government issued a notification saying Aadhaar would be required for identification of the dead for the registration of deaths, but clarified later that it was “not mandatory”.

The move comes at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a petition over threat to privacy arising from the use of the digital identification numbers.

A Punjab government website exposed Aadhaar numbers of more than 20,000 people who applied for low-cost housing in Ludhiana and Jagraon, the latest in a string of blunders by administrative officials jeopardising privacy.

Around 20,100 Aadhaar numbers, names of people it belonged to, and their father’s name were published on Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) website. The details were published as lists of applicants for EWS houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) programme, and of those who won the draw.

It was unclear how long the lists were up but officials removed links leading to them on Monday when HT brought it to their attention. But the lists stayed online on the GLADA server and could be accessed by anyone who had the direct link.

Earlier, GLADA officials were unaware of how the numbers ended up online. “I will look into the matter,” additional chief administrator Neeru Katyal Gupta said.