Out of the six union territories where the NDHM pilot is being implemented, the maximum number of Health IDs were issued in Puducherry. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in reply to a parliamentary question revealed that the total number of Unique Health IDs created so far under the ongoing pilot project of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is over 1.1 million. The question was asked by Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi in the Lok Sabha and answered on July 23. Minister of State for the MoHFW Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar in her reply also said that the total budget that was earmarked for creating Unique Health IDs for the year 2020-21 under the NDHM pilot was Rs 30 crore. Why it matters? The National Digital Health Mission, started as a pilot project in August 2020, was instituted to create a digital health architecture using health IDs, unique identifiers and registries for doctors and health facilities, personal health records, telemedicine, and e-pharmacies, among other components. Since then, it has also been expanded nationwide after the health ministry earlier this year allowed the creation of Health IDs through voluntary authentication of identity through Aadhaar to beneficiaries of “various health IT applications.” Privacy experts had, upon the NDHM’s launch, raised concerns about the digitisation of health records, saying that the proposed ‘womb to tomb’ health identity raised the possibility of surveillance. Break-up of Health-IDs across 6 UTs Pawar said that 11,68,226 Health IDs had been issued under the pilot that…
