Aadhaar cards issued to Indian residents going forward will prominently highlight upfront that the unique ID is not proof of citizenship or date of birth. The Hindu reported how new Aadhaar disclaimers signal clearly to public agencies and private players not to use it as official validation for either citizenship status or birth dates of individuals.
This comes even as the Election Commission of India still recognizes Aadhaar for date of birth during voter enrollment. Other organizations like EPFO have lately prohibited it as DOB evidence based on earlier tech ministry advisories.
Prevents Misuse Despite Widespread Dependence
While Aadhaar has evolved into the central identity pillar across much of digital governance, banking and private services, it was never envisioned as an absolute record of citizenship or birth chronology.
By underscoring this aspect upfront, the latest move prevents misuse of Aadhaar as the ultimate fact validator by parties seeking such personal particulars for enrollment, KYC or eligibility verification purposes related to welfare schemes and document submissions etc.
At the same time, the prominence of fresh disclaimers indicates the scale at which systems still organically treat Aadhaar as a catch-all ID surrogate for matters beyond just identity authentication of individuals. Restricting such scoped overdependency helps ensure fairness and data ethics.
