Government has no plan to use Aadhaar Data for Census

The government has no plans to use Aadhaar data for census purposes, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. In a written response, he stated, “The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has informed that there is no plan to use Aadhaar data for census.”

According to the Unique Identification Authority of India, it has given over 136 crore Aadhaar numbers as of the end of February.

“… after adjusting for the estimated number of deaths, the estimated number of living Aadhaar number holders is 130.2 crore, which is more than 94% of the total projected population for 2022,” Chandrasekhar responded to Congress member Adoor Prakash’s queries.

Furthermore, the minister stated that there is no mechanism in place to receive Aadhaar numbers of deceased people from Registrars appointed by state governments under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 for the registration of births and deaths, in order to deactivate those Aadhaar numbers.