The state public health department will establish enrolment centres in around 500 of its hospitals for Aadhaar-linked birth registration to assign newborns a unique identity number.
This follows the completion of a pilot project at Daga Memorial Hospital in Nagpur, where the project to link the birth certificate to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) enrolment was launched in 2016.
A senior official from the state public health department told DNA that 490 of its institutions, including district, civil, general, women's and sub-district hospitals would see tab-based enrolment kits being deployed to enrol newborns for Aadhaar.
"We are training two staff from each hospital. The facility will be launched in August once their certification comes through," he explained.
Based on the success of this project, the department may decide to extend it to 1,814 primary health centres.
The official said once a child is enrolled for Aadhaar-linked birth certificate, its enrolment ID would be reflected on the certificate. "The biometrics of children (iris and fingerprints) will have to be updated at the age of five and 15 years. The biggest advantage of the scheme is that they will not have to go to an enrolment centre for Aadhaar registration," he said.
The official admitted that they had faced "teething trouble" in the pilot project, which they hoped to overcome as the scheme was rolled out extensively.
Maharashtra sees around 98% institutional births. Of the estimated annual births of around 20 lakh, considering the median population and its growth, around 12 lakh take place in state and civic-run institutions and government medical colleges. Of these, around five lakh take place in hospitals and institutions run by the state public health department, while some like Daga see over 15,000 births annually.
According to the UIDAI's data, of Maharashtra's total projected population of 12,08,37,347, around 11,19,80,383, or 92.7 per cent, have been assigned Aadhaar numbers as on June 30. This is higher than the national average of 89 per cent. But for the 0-5 age band, just 46.2 per cent or 46,47,553 of the total population of 1,00,67,211 had been assigned Aadhaar numbers, which led the state to focus its strategy on this age group.
A universal rollout of the UID cards will help the Centre's plans to push the trinity of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) to enable social security, delivery of welfare schemes and financial inclusion.
