No plan to use Aadhaar data for census, says govt

The government has no plan to use Aadhaar data for the census, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

“The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has informed that there is no plan to use Aadhaar data for the census,” he said in a written reply.

Up until the end of February, more than 136 crore Aadhaar numbers had been issued, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India.

In his answers to Congress member Adoor Prakash’s question, the minister said there is no mechanism to receive the Aadhaar numbers of deceased persons from the registrars appointed by state governments under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, for the registration of births and deaths and to deactivate those Aadhaar numbers.

Registrars appointed by state governments, under the said Act, register births and deaths in their respective local areas. The Unique Identification Authority of India has apprised that the Registrar General of India had sought the authority’s suggestions on draft amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, regarding the capturing of the Aadhaar number of a
a deceased person while issuing the death certificate, for subsequent sharing of the Aadhaar number by the registrar with the authority for deactivation of the Aadhaar.