Aadhaar cannot be used as proof of birth: UP government issues directives to all departments

The Uttar Pradesh Planning Department has directed all government departments not to accept Aadhaar cards as proof of birth, reiterating that the unique identity document cannot be used for this purpose, ANI reported.

The order, issued on November 24 by Special Secretary (Planning) Amit Singh Bansal, was sent to all additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state.

The Planning Department is the nodal body for implementing directions related to Aadhaar, the most widely held identity document in the country.

The directive followed a Unique Identification Authority of India regional office letter dated October 31, which stated that Aadhaar is not a proof of birth, The Indian Express reported. The letter was issued by Deputy Director Aditya Prakash Bajpai.

Instead of Aadhaar, birth certificates, high school mark sheets and other prescribed documents can be used instead to verify date of birth for official purposes, The Indian Express quoted unidentified officials as saying.

Colonel Prashant Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General of UIDAI's Lucknow region, told The Times of India that Aadhaar cannot serve as proof of birth because of how enrolment was conducted.

“Since Aadhaar was commissioned in 2010, we enrolled individuals based on three categories of date of birth: approximate, declared without documents and documentary evidence,” The Times of India quoted Singh as saying. “For approximate dates, we defaulted to January 1 of the stated year.”

He added that since February 2020, the Registrar General of India has stopped issuing manual birth certificates and now provides barcode-enabled certificates, which can be used to authenticate information digitally.

“We only accept birth certificates with barcodes because scanning verifies authenticity,” The Times of India quoted Singh as saying.

He added that Aadhaar is a digital identity proof generated after combining biometrics and demographic details and neither a birth certificate or a nationality document.

Source: Scroll
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