Karnataka has been ranked 18th in the Aadhaar coverage across the country, reported the Economic Times. The lag in enrolment is primarily due to a lower number of its children being counted, it added.
Aadhaar's all-India coverage today is 93 percent among adults, and 67 percent and 20 percent among children between 5-18 and 0-5 age groups, respectively, reported Business Standard. However, Karnataka, which houses the IT capital of the country and also holds a strong position in IT and e-governance, lagged behind with 84.4 per cent of its 6.45 crore population covered, said the ET report. That brought the state 3 steps down from the 15th rank in 2014, despite Chief Minister Siddaramaiah setting several deadlines for cent percent enrolment a year earlier.
To enable more enrolment, the officials involved in the registration processes have been ordered to cover the children category by the state's education and women and child welfare departments — the nodal ministries pertaining to education and child development.
"If these two areas are covered fully, the Aadhaar enrolment would reach 97 percent," Rathan U Kelkar, chief executive officer of Karnataka's Centre for E-governance, told ET.
Logistics and the challenges involved have also been deterrents in Karnataka's enrolment drive. The state has 50,000 anganwadis apart from an equally high number of government schools, all expected to be covered by September.
"We had initially aimed for June, but that will require enrolment of over 60,000 a day, which is not logistically possible," Kelkar told ET.
Except Tamil Nadu, all states neighbouring Karnataka are ranked higher than it. The new state of Telangana tops the list, and is ranked second at the all-India level. Maharashtra fared better despite a population of 11.8 crore, nearly twice that of Karnataka.
The BJP-led government at the centre passing the Aadhaar Act as a money bill is expected to speed up its registration, said ET.
Aadhaar saturation crossed 90 percent in 13 states and Union Territories, while it is between 75 percent and 90 percent in another 13, reported the Business Standard. Delhi with 110.2 percent coverage tops the list with both its resident population and the floating crowd, which sets foot in country's national capital every year, being covered.
The world's largest national unique identification number project, which was launched n 2009, achieved the 1-billion mark April 4, 2016. The first of the 12-digit Aadhaar cards was issued in 2010.
