2 mn denied ration over Aadhaar: Study

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), while citing a recent report, “State of Aadhaar 2017-18”, has reasserted the widespread use and support for Aadhaar.

The study was carried out by the multinational research organisation, Idinsight, for Omidyar Network.

The authority had issued a statement on May 16 lauding the Aadhaar project for its efficient application in the public distribution systems. It also accepted the fact that Aadhaar is the “foundational” identity proof for the country’s 1.21 billion citizens.

UIDAI’s CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said, “Idinsight’s latest report highlights that Aadhaar has wide-scale support and acceptance on the ground.” The authority’s press release said the report showed Aadhaar was being accepted by citizens as the pivotal identity document, which is universal. The report had heaped praises on the unique identity project. But it also presented some troubling data. The data is significant because this is the first such survey-based independent study since the Supreme Court began dealing with a clutch of petitions challenging the efficacy.

Some of the findings of the survey include: Two million people in three states were denied access to PDS due to problems in Aadhaar authentication: Due to problems with authentication of identity through Aadhaar, more than two million people surveyed in the three states of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were unable to access their legallyguaranteed subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act. The situation in Rajasthan seems to be the worst of the lot. Pandey defended the use of Aadhaar for distribution of PDS saying, “PDS exclusion should be taken very seriously by the agencies concerned. They must ensure that not a single beneficiary is denied benefits or services.”

However, Ronald Abraham, partner at Idinsight, told Business Standard, “The actual number is quite significant and authorities should think about fixing their delivery even as more people are excluded due to reasons other than Aadhaar.” “The Aadhaar Act and government instructions provide for alternative means of identification for genuine beneficiaries,” Pandey added.

1.58 lakh duplicate Aadhaar cards in just three states: The report estimated that 0.1 per cent of the sample studied had duplicate Aadhaar numbers with the same name and address but different identity numbers. This translates roughly into 1,58,400 duplicate cards if one goes by the UIDAI population estimates in rural areas of the three states. The study had sampled only those holding voter IDs. Based on that, it extrapolated that 71,000 people with election voter IDs cards could have duplicate Aadhaar cards in the three states.

Millions of Aadhaar cards in three states likely to have erroneous data: The report casts serious aspersions on the quality of data in the Aadhaar database. In Rajasthan, 4.8 per cent of Aadhaar cards had errors. In West Bengal, that ratio went up to 12.2 per cent. The levels of errors were found higher in the Aadhaar database as compared to the voter ID data. Voter ID card errors are present in just 2.4 per cent cases in Andhra Pradesh and in 10.4 per cent cases in West Bengal.

Moreover, the errors do not get rectified in nearly half the cases. Only 53 per cent of people with error-ridden Aadhaar reported to have tried getting it corrected. Out of those who did go for correction, in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, 69.1 per cent and 67.0 per cent people, respectively, stated that they found the process of correction to be “easy”.

The study by Indinsight covered people in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh