UIDAI should review issue of Aadhaar to children below 5 years, mull alternates to establish unique ID: CAG

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General on Wednesday pulled up UIDAI for the issuance of Aadhaar to children below the age of five years on the basis of the biometrics of their parents without confirming the uniqueness of biometric identity, saying such acts are against the basic tenets of Aadhaar Act.


In its report,

CAG

advised

Unique Identification Authority of

India (UIDAI) to explore "alternate ways" to capture uniqueness of biometric identity for minor children below five years, since uniqueness of identity is the most distinctive feature of Aadhaar established through an individual's biometrics.

There had been instances of issuance of

Aadhaars

with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issue of Aadhaars on faulty biometrics and documents, the principal auditor said in its report on the functioning of UIDAI.

The 'de-duplication process' remained vulnerable for generating multiple Aadhaar numbers and manual interventions had to be done to resolve the problem, the report, tabled in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, said.

As per information provided by

UIDAI Tech Centre

, nearly 4.75 lakh duplicate Aadhaar numbers were cancelled as of November 2019. This indicated that on an average, no less than 145 Aadhaars generated in a day during the period of nine years since 2010, were duplicate numbers requiring cancellation, CAG noted.

According to the report, UIDAI needs to also strengthen the 'Automated Biometric Identification System' so that generation of multiple/duplicate Aadhaars could be curbed at the initial stage itself.

The performance audit by CAG included assessment of the enrolment and update ecosystems as well as the authentication ecosystems of the UIDAI for the period 2014-15 to 2018-19. The figures have been updated wherever received up to March 2021.

CAG also slammed UIDAI over avoidable expenditure on issue of 'Bal Aadhaars'.

"Issue of Aadhaar numbers to minor children below the age of five, based on the biometrics of their parents, without confirming uniqueness of biometric identity goes against the basic tenet of the Aadhaar Act," it said.

Apart from being violative of the statutory provisions, UIDAI has also incurred avoidable expenditure of Rs 310 crore on issuance of Bal Aadhaars till March 31, 2019.

In second phase of ICT assistance, a further sum of about Rs 288 crore was released up to the year 2020-21 to states/ schools primarily for issue of Aadhaars to minor children.

"UIDAI needs to review the issue of Aadhaar to minor children below five years and find alternate ways to establish their unique identity, especially since the Supreme Court has stated that no benefit will be denied to any child for want of Aadhaar document," it said.

Describing de-duplication as the most important feature of Aadhaar as the process establishes uniqueness of identity of the applicant, the CAG noted that UIDAI had to cancel over 4.75 lakh Aadhaars (November 2019) for being duplicate.

"There were instances of issue of Aadhaars with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issue of Aadhaars on faulty biometrics and documents" the report said.

Although UIDAI has taken action to improve the quality of the biometrics and has also introduced iris-based authentication features for Aadhaar enrolment, the database continued to have faulty Aadhaars which were already issued, it emphasised.

CAG also said UIDAI should frame a suitable data archival policy to mitigate the risk of vulnerability to data protection.

"UIDAI may levy penalties on biometric service providers for deficiencies in their performance in respect of biometric de-duplication... and biometric authentication... agreements in this regard should be modified, if required," the report said.

On the 182-day residence clause on Aadhaar eligibility, CAG noted that while the condition was relaxed for non-resident Indians holding valid Indian passports, UIDAI did not prescribe any specific proof or process for confirming if an applicant has indeed resided in India for the specified period. Confirmation of the residential status is through casual self-declaration.

"There was no system in place to check the affirmations of the applicant. As such, there is no assurance that all the Aadhaar holders in the country are 'Residents' as defined in the Aadhaar Act," CAG said.


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