Have you seen your birth certificate?
When asked for proof of identification, do you show your Aadhar Card first?
And if you don’t have an Aadhar Card, how does it feel to be part of the 2% of country that doesn’t?
The Aadhar card is considered a handy document to prove identity. According to the government, an estimated 1,422,062,032 have Aadhar cards and of those who don’t have Aadhar cards are children around the age of 0-5 years (83 million). This means that over 94% of the eligible population does have an Aadhar card. Before the Aadhar Card, more than a 1/3rd of India did not have a birth certificate and more than 60% did not have a bank account.
The penetration of Aadhaar is thus not one that can be taken lightly. While we know and understand that the card itself can cause major privacy issues (K. S Puttuswamy), its impact and spread cannot be ignored.
Nikita Vangule, 30, works as a Maid in Mumbai. She got her Aadhar back in 2015. “I heard it was compulsory, so I got it”. When asked about linking all her personal details and ration card to Aadhar Card, she replied, “I don’t have a problem with giving my personal details because what will they do knowing about that.”
The push from the government’s side was a major factor in the rise of Aadhaar prevalence. When the SC judgment declared Aadhaar not to be official proof of citizenship, it left many in the same position.
The Bihar Elections are the glaring proof. ECI made the decision on 24th June to conduct a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar. The concerns are primarily that this is yet another new tactic to introduce the NRC. The intensive procedure laid down for the SIR got more convoluted because the time frame got rushed to match up to the upcoming elections in Bihar.
The current special intensive revision mandates the submission of different sets of documents based on the applicant’s year of birth. Notably, individuals born after 2004 are required to provide multiple documents. These include a personal document indicating their date and place of birth; a document of the father showing his date and place of birth; and a document of the mother reflecting her date and place of birth. To establish these facts, acceptable documents include a birth certificate issued by a competent authority; a matriculation or educational certificate from a recognised board; an Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), or Scheduled Tribes (ST) caste certificate issued by the relevant authority; government-issued land or house allotment certificates; and, where applicable, records from the National Register of Citizens.
Some of these were added only because the Supreme Court refused to stay the voter list revision even after several petitions were filed pointing out the haphazard manner in which it is being conducted.
Now here is another issue. As mentioned before, over 1/3rd of the country doesn’t have a birth certificate (and that is of the people we know), the other documents are even fewer.
According to the “Vital Statistics of India Based on the Civil Registration System” (2022) report, the percentage of registered births in the state is 71.6%, significantly lower than the national average of 89.1%
Additionally, the alternative route for registration is to obtain a certificate issued under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. The government has yet to release the number of individuals who have received the certificate. Moreover, the verification of approximately 7.7 crore voters in Bihar is an enormous task that is unlikely to be completed accurately within a limited timeframe. Given the social, economic, and political vulnerabilities of the population, this process may not provide adequate opportunities for individuals to raise objections or claims if there are any issues.
Thus, many in Bihar stand with just an Aadhar Card in hand to prove that they are in fact eligible to vote. While Aadhar does have its problems, it has become the only proof of identification for many. By denying it as a proof, many are lost and have thus become almost invalid in the elections.
The question thus posed to be answered is if the government is ready for a hoarde of people standing outside their offices demanding recognition of their existence? Approximately 94% of the population.