The RTI also potentially reveals the exact number of IDs that have been issued all over India even as the government continues to push for linking vaccine registrations with Aadhaar. You are reading it here first: Over 11 crore Unique Health IDs have been created through the CoWIN platform as part of the government's National Digital Health Mission, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) revealed earlier this week in response to an RTI application filed by MediaNama. The Ministry also said that no agencies have been empaneled for customisation, implementation, and international roll-out of CoWIN. The process for empaneling agencies for CoWIN's international roll-out had started in July with the National Health Authority revealing earlier this month that it had shortlisted six agencies. However, it seems the process has not concluded. As for the issuance of Health IDs, the government has been criticised for enrolling individuals into NDHM through Aadhaar-enabled vaccine registrations without informed consent. It has been reported that individuals falsely believed that Aadhaar is mandatory for authentication through CoWIN and thus, unknowingly signed up for UHIDs. The exact number of Health IDs While previously the MoHFW had listed a breakdown of the 11 lakh UHID's that had been issued under its pilot project in 6 Union Territories, the response to MediaNama's RTI potentially reveals the figure of all UHIDs issued in India, including those created under the pilot project. In its response, the MoHFW said that as of August 16, 11,05,42,794 Unique Health IDs have been created through the CoWIN platform, which…
