India is in the midst of the world's largest vaccination drive and it has approved emergency use of two "Made-in-India" vaccines - Covaxin and Covishield. The healthcare and frontline workers are first in line to get the jab but as there are over a billion people waiting to get vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19, which brought the entire world to a standstill, infected millions and killed hundreds and thousands of people around the world. But the Indian government has a new rule for those who wish to get vaccinated - link Aadhaar to your mobile number.
The government has pushed for Aadhaar linking to various documents and now it wants to link your Aadhaar to mobile numbers before getting the much-needed jab. RS Sharma, Chairman of the Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management on COVID-19, said that the proxies for Aadhaar authentication are not allowed.
Why link Aadhaar to mobile number to get vaccine?
The Indian government has a major task at hand of vaccinating 1.3 billion people across the country. In doing so, making sure everyone gets the jab is important and the only way to track it is by using data. For that reason, the government is using Aadhaar to maintain a digital record of vaccination details.
Sharma said that Aadhaar is mandatory for identifying the "person getting vaccinated and also keeping a digital record on who gets vaccinated by whom, when, and with which vaccine."
The government has also created a digital platform to keep a track of the storage of vaccines, people who have registered for the vaccination or taken the first shot and due for the second.
"Co-WIN digital platform includes a free downloadable mobile application which can help record vaccine data. One can register themselves on it if they want the vaccine. There are five modules in Co-WIN app - administrator module, registration module, vaccination module, beneficiary acknowledgement module and report module," Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan was quoted by PTI as saying.
It is important for you to link your Aadhaar to your mobile number before your vaccine shot.
How to link Aadhaar to mobile number?
It is now a hassle-free process. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to link your Aadhaar to your mobile number online through OTP.
- Call 14546 from your mobile number that is updated on your Aadhaar database
- Select Indian or NRI
- Give consent to re-verify Aadhaar by pressing 1
- Enter your 12-digit unique Aadhaar number and confirm
- Give consent to access your name, photo and DOB from UIDAI
- When the IVR reads out your last 4 digits of your mobile number, make sure it is correct
- Then enter the OTP sent to your phone number
- Finally, press 1 to complete the process
