Pilot projects that link Aadhaar numbers to death records and to newborn children will begin soon, reported Economic Times. Citing unnamed senior officials of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the projects aim to prevent the misuse of Aadhaar, expand its presence across the subcontinent, and stem the steady flow of money from the public exchequer to the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of deceased persons. These projects mark steps to link Aadhaar numbers to people—quite literally from birth to death. Last year, similar proposals to link birth and death records to the National Population Registry, Aadhaar, and other national databases, were challenged for allegedly violating the Right to Privacy and heightening surveillance. According to the UIDAI public dashboard, the number of Aadhaar numbers generated to date stands at over 1.33 billion. While 93% of the country’s population aged 5-18 are linked to Aadhaar, only around a quarter of children below 5 have Aadhaar numbers. How Will Aadhaar Be Linked to Newborns? According to the former Director-General of UIDAI, the proposal to link Aadhaar numbers to newborn children has been in place since the program’s inception. Now, when the pilot is executed, newborn children will be allocated a temporary Aadhaar number. This number will be used until they are at least five years old—after which their biometric data can be collected and linked to their Aadhaar number. Once they hit 18, their data will be re-registered, as it is presumed that after this their ‘biometric parameters’ would be stable for the rest…
