The Aadhaar enrolment in Karnataka reached a milestone on Wednesday as it crossed the six-crore mark, after over six-and-a-half years after the exercise began. The registration in the State now stands at 6,00,04,819, covering nearly 93% of the population.
Karnataka also became the second State after Tamil Nadu to reach this mark. Tamil Nadu, which currently has 6.83 crore Aadhaar enrolments, reached this figure in January 2016.
The enrolment in Karnataka started in the first week of October in 2010 in Mysuru and Tumakuru districts, which were identified as pilot districts.
“We reached six crore this morning,” Project Director, Aadhaar, H.L. Prabhakar, confirmed to The Hindu . With the current population estimated at around 6.46 lakh currently, the enrolment process has been speeded up to cover the entire population, he said.
Aadhaar enrolment, which in February 2012 had been stopped after a directive from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) when the national enrolment figure reached the original proposed figure of 20 crore, was resumed in a few months to cover the entire population, said UIDAI sources.
Sources said the process was also slow during that period due to confusion over enrolment under the National Population Registry done by the Ministry of Home Affairs and enrolment to Aadhaar managed by the Planning Commission. “Once the air was cleared, the enrolment gathered steam.” “Enrolments picked up after 2014 when the State government took keen interest in covering the entire population. Several permanent centres were established,” said another official in Karnataka. The official said that 99% of the adult population in the State has been covered already, and most of the 46 lakh population that is yet to be covered are children.
Meanwhile, the official said to cover children, enrolment kits have been provided to anganwadi workers and trained staff in hospitals to capture the data of newborns, and camps are being held in schools.
