Along with Census 2011, work on database for the ambitious Unique Identification Project will also begin to provide national identity number (NIN) to all residents above the age of 15, Gujarat census director Manish Bhardwaj said.
“We will first begin the house listing operation in April 2010, and all the houses will be assigned a number by 1.5 lakh teachers involved in the exercise,” he said.
Normally, after house listing, population enumeration operation is undertaken and subsequently census is declared after the operation. But this time, national population register will be done before population enumeration.
“In national population register, each individual of above 15 years and a resident of the country irrespective of nationality, will be registered with his/her finger prints, bio-metric details and a photograph in a separate form,” Mr. Bhardwaj said on Saturday.
“Once the database in the national population register is prepared, it will be handed over to the Unique Identification Authority which will undertake the exercise of de-duplication and verification of the database collected from across the country,” he said.
Mr. Bhardwaj said the authority, headed by technocrat Nandan Nilekani, will assign a unique number to each individual above 15 years and a smart card will be issued which will have the person’s unique number, photograph, finger prints and other details.
The smart card will be issued at the district magistrate level and will be made a routine official procedure which means, it will be issued on regular basis to new entrants. The unique number, Mr. Bhardwaj said, will be used for passport and other official purposes subsequently.
“However, the smart card will not give entitlement to citizenship of the country. It will be issued to all residents of the country irrespective of their nationality and it will be mentioned on the card that the card holder is not entitled to citizenship of the country,” he said.
