Centre to introduce unique numbers for children to keep their health, education & security record

In order to tackle the problems of health, education, and security, the Centre is planning to introduce unique identity number for children which will be different from Aadhaar, the biometric-enabled ID. This unique number will be given to every child born in India, that will work for the holistic development of these children in the fields of health, education, and employment. According to a Hindustan Times report, this project will involve several ministries including the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc. A technical group is currently working out the details on understanding the existing data structure that exists in these ministries and how the data can be converged so that all ministries will be able to use the data from a single database. The Government officials said that these unique numbers will be created by the health department at the birth of the child. Thereafter, when the child will get his/her Aadhaar number, then this unique number will be linked to Aadhaar as well. It was said that there will be no biometric authentication of these children as in the case of Aadhaar. Currently, students availing fellowships and scholarships programs, getting benefits of the mid-day meal, or appearing in board and competitive exams are required to furnish their Aadhaar number. The Aadhaar number is also required for availing benefits of a number of social sector schemes. The officials said that this unique number project will help in keeping an official record of all such children i.e. the number of children going to school, their health status data and employment database. However, the project will have to undergo the test of privacy which is now a Fundamental Right of every citizen. The process of collecting personal data of children will have to be carefully examined before being implemented, as all over the world, children's data is given the highest level of protection since they don't have the ability to give their consent.