Nagaland first in NE to start Aadhaar linked birth registration

September 1, 2023 34 Views No Comment

Morung Express news
Kohima | September 1

Nagaland became the first state in the Northeast to officially launch the Aadhaar linked birth registration (ALBR), which is a system for Aadhaar enrollment of children below 5 years at the time of Birth Registration, called Baal Aadhaar.

During a launch at the Commissioner’s office today in Kohima, Nagaland Commissioner, T Mhabemo Yanthan, IAS remarked that the Aadhaar enrollment system for children from 0-5 years will play a vital role in enrolling all newborns, and urged the State Government not to leave any child behind.

One of the key benefits, he said, is that a child receives his/her own unique identity and can accordingly track beneficial services like immunization, ICDS, school education and other social welfare benefits. He said Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometric ID system and one of the most sophisticated programmes; and the country in this regard has taken huge efforts to take the mammoth effort to make the biometric system successful.

He termed today’s launch as a milestone and lauded the department and UIDAI for taking the leap in covering the 0-5 years age group. Yanthan also called upon them to ensure that the national programme is fulfilled.

Yanthan commented that there is two way benefit for the parents as well as children to enroll birth and Aadhaar seamlessly and in a friendly manner. “Once birth registration number is issued by the department, the linking with Aadhaar will become easy as it will now be performed at the time of birth and vice versa,” he said.

The Commissioner informed that the State Government has received child enrollment kits and they have been deployed in the districts. He informed that additional kits will be procured by the State Government.

Nedilhou Angami, Director, Department of Economics and Statistics said that this activity will promote transparency, accountability, predictability and generation of real time data and facilitate 100% registration of births and Aadhaar linkage, as Aadhaar linking in the 0-5 years age group is very low.

He informed that last year, online registration of births and deaths have been implemented in all the districts, including the directorate.

Angami further thanked the UIDAI for making the department a register and said that recently the UIDAI office has written to the Economics and Statistics Department for Aadhaar linked birth registration for collaboration.

Delivering the inaugural address, Col Abhishek Koushik, Director, UIDAI, regional office, Guwahati said the ALBR is a system in which Aadhaar enrolment can be performed at the time of birth of the child. “Baal Aadhaar is in blue colour to visibly distinguish the card for children and no biometric fingerprint and iris images of the child is recorded,” he informed. In this regard, Koushik said only photograph of the child is taken and birth registration number is required. The guardian’s or parents’ physical proof of identity is required and Baal Aadhaar can be used till the age of 5 years.

During the programme, a real time Baal Aadhaar registration of two under one-year old children was demonstrated. The programme was chaired by Benjamin Longkap, Assistant Commissioner and Bhaskar Pratim Sharma, Programme Manager, UIDAI, regional office, Guwahati.