The 'Aadhar' we plan to render to our trainees

- by Nikhil Bagga

Aadhaar project is the latest initiative by the Indian government to create a Unique Identification(UID) for every citizen of the country and digitize all citizens’ database at a single point. It will act as a one stop proof that will serve all purposes; thus reducing the redundancy of obtaining different types of ID proofs. It will ensure that all Indians have individual identities that cannot be faked by others. The Government of India feels that the system will also help in curbing corruption involved in its various rural programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rural Health Mission, Bharat Nirman, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme etc.

We, at Pratham Institute are developing a model through which each student undergoing training at all our vocational training centres will be helped by our centre staff to get an Aadhar card.

 Through this initiative, we wish to spread awareness about the advantages of having an Aadhar card and the ways through which it will help empower the youth residing in rural areas. The Human Resource Ministry(HRD) of India has also planned a new program, under which all school children will be provided a UID so that their progress across classes can be tracked. This will help in monitoring the dropout rate and in controlling the dropout trend, which is especially found in the rural schools. We have noticed a similar trend at our vocational skilling centres, and hence we plan to implement the Aadhar model at an organisational level, to curb the dropout rate.

Additionally, UID will help us keep track of students’ movement across educational institutions or across our various placement partners, with whom these students get placed. Having a UID will considerably reduce the problem of verification for our trainees when they approach Insurance companies, Banks, Micro-finance Institutions, Income tax department, Mobile Service providers, Passport offices etc. In rural areas, where a primary source of verification (Passport/PAN card) is difficult to get, UID will prove to be of the utmost help for the underprivileged citizens.

We plan to help our trainees undergo the entire process by themselves. By doing this, we want them to understand the process so that they can further help their family members/friends or even their neighbors get Aadhar cards.

Please find below the briefly described steps to obtain an Aadhar card. Through this blog post, we can help our trainees/centre staff/anyone who needs basic guidance, fill the Aadhar card form. 

1. In Part A, in Section 'Name' fill the name of the applicant
2. Below that tick any of the options 'Mother' or 'Father' or 'Husband' or 'Guardian' option. Write their name. For children below 5 years the name of the Father/Mother/Guardian is a must.
3. Write the Date of birth of the applicant in Day/Month/Year format. If the date of birth is not known, write approximate age in years.
4. Tick the applicant's gender.
5. Write the complete address of the applicant, where he/she is currently living.
6. In Part B, Additional information can be given, like phone/mobile number, email address. These are optional.
7. In Part C, Financial information can be given to open a new Aadhaar enabled bank account or link your existing bank account to Aadhaar number. This option is very useful, as in the future the government intends to use the Aadhaar number for subsidies and other government schemes. Thus, opening an Aadhaar enabled bank account or linking your existing bank account to Aadhaar would be very useful.
8. If you are linking your existing bank account number, write the complete account number (not the short one that is sometimes written on your passbook especially national banks).
9. Write clearly, avoid cuttings. Once again check the spellings, especially of the names.

After following these steps, one’s UID will be processed and once he/she visits any of the Aadhar centres and provides the basic biometrics, his/her Aadhar card will be delivered to him/her in a specific span of time. Going forward, we plan to make it mandatory for all our trainees, who have enrolled at our PACE centres, to have an Aadhar card or apply for one, if they don’t already have one, within the first few weeks of our vocational course. This will help us teach them not only financial literacy but also the appropriate use of primary verification sources such PAN card/UID to open bank accounts for themselves as well as their family members.