About 93 percent of adults in India have Aadhaar card, says UIDAI

New Delhi: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Friday said 93 per cent of adults in India voluntarily possess Aadhaar number, as per a recent finding.

“In a recent update, it is found that 93 per cent of the adult residents in India voluntarily possess Unique Identity –Aadhaar,” UIDAI said in a press statement. In UIDAI assigned states/UTs, Aadhaar saturation among adult population is 98 per cent while in Registrar General of India assigned states/UTs the adult population covered is 76 per cent. It further said that to achieve universal Aadhaar coverage, the UIDAI is focusing on child enrolment now, besides mopping up remaining persons.

UIDAI having issued first Aadhaar number on September 29 2010, has till date generated more than 92.68 crore Aadhaar in just five years time. However its web portal indicates that it has issued 92.86 crore Aadhaar numbers.

Out of the 24 States/UTs where UIDAI has been mandated to enrol and issue Aadhaar numbers, it is found that 16 states/UTs have more than 100 per cent adult population saturation with Delhi on the top with 128 per cent followed by Himachal Pradesh (111 per cent), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (111 per cent) and Punjab (110 per cent). There are 18 States/UTs in total having more than 100 per cent Aadhaar adult population saturation.

More than 100 per cent Aadhaar can be generated in a State/UT as it is a unique lifelong identity that is available free of cost and any individual irrespective of age and gender and who is a resident in India and satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI, can enroll for Aadhaar on a voluntary basis anywhere in the country.

The numbers include migrant population which has enrolled in these States/UTs. Also, the population figures are based on the Census of 2011, while Aadhaar are generated to the real population which has increased by 2015, UIDAI said.

Five states/UTs have above 90 per cent adult saturation with Andaman and Nicobar Islands (97 pc), Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh (96 pc each), Uttarakhand (93 pc) and Uttar Pradesh (91 pc); and three states have above 80 pc adult population saturation with Gujarat (89 pc), Daman and Diu (82 pc) and Bihar (80 pc).

In other 12 States/UTs which are being covered by RGI for enrolment has an overall 76 per cent saturation with Lakshadweep (109 pc), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (103 pc), West Bengal (89 pc), Odisha and Tamil Nadu (88 pc each), Manipur (65 pc), Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir (63 pc each), Arunachal Pradesh (50 pc) and Mizoram (46 pc).

In two of the RGI States namely Assam and Meghalaya, there are some local issues which have resulted in low saturation.

PTI