One Unique Aadhaar-Type Address For All Properties In India: One Nation, One Address Coming Soon!

A suggestion on employment generation by the working Group of Ministers is to have a ‘One Nation, One Address’ for every property.

The working Group of Ministers, under the leadership of Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, has submitted a report to the PM which states the need for a unique, digital, and scalable addressing solutions for streets, buildings, and units.

This means a  ‘One Nation, One Address’ for all the properties in India, which will be quite similar to the Aadhaar card. 

How will the One Nation, One Address system work? 

Streets will identified and sequentially numbered by using a fixed alphanumeric format. For example, there will be a code like ‘AGC – 270 – 234’. Here, the AGC will work as the area code/village code, 270 would signify the street number and 234 would mean the house number. 

Another example cited by the report, which is also a tried and tested idea by the New Delhi Municipal Council is, “STS 100 138 instead of Mahaveer Shiva Shakti Mandir, Airport Authority of India, Safdarjung Airport Road, Satya Sadan, New Delhi, NCT of Delhi, 110003”.

Not only this, but the idea has also been tried out in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the Andhra Pradesh Urban in 110 local bodies

There might be some obstructions in this system though – more than 90% of the streets in India dont have names or numbers, and addresses are in different formats as well. 

As per a senior government official, “It is estimated that many delivery persons waste 20% of their time locating the address and end up calling the person. Even drone delivery is not possible in India as there is no unique number in India for houses and properties. If we implement ‘One nation, One Address’, not only will it make delivery more efficient, but it will also help other key areas such as fire, ambulance and property tax among others.

How Will This Generate Employment in India?

If this system is implemented in India, it is expected to create about 2 crore jobs in the next five years in the sectors like the gig economy, surface transport, logistics, healthcare, hyper local markets, and government services delivered to the doorstep. 

It is also expected to give a boost to women micro entrepreneurs. 

However, this is expected to cost about Rs 1,125 crore (Rs 562 crore in year one and Rs 563 crore in year two).