The main tool in the form of documents in India is Aadhaar. It is a 12 digit number used by the Union Government to enroll the residents of India in its database. The reason for using Aadhaar as a key tool is because of its uniqueness and database properties. Due to highly relational in nature, it acts as a single source of interaction in almost all government and private sector entities. Aadhaar consists of 12 digits ranging from 0 to 9. This number is structured in such a way that the first number cannot be 0 because if the first digit is set as 0, this will cause the total digit to 11. As written earlier the Aadhaar is issued only to the resident person. In India as per law, a resident is a person who lives inside the country for a minimum of 182 days a year. If you are Indian but live in India for less than 182 days, you are not a resident. You fall in the definition of non-resident Indian. In this case, you may not apply for Aadhaar. Any effort to cheat the UIDAI system will create problems for you in the long run and you may face legal consequences as well.
Though, Aadhaar is a mandatory document not by law but due to its usability. One cannot live without it as he or she will have to face severe trouble in daily life. This is the reason, experts have questioned the use of Aadhaar in every part of life. During the corona lockdown in almost every part of the country especially in Hyderabad, Aadhaar was a necessary document in order to get a vehicle pass. If anyone does not have Aadhaar, this means that he or she does not exist for pass issuing authorities. This is not a good thing and researcher Srinivas Kodali openly criticizes this thing. According to him, Aadhaar should not be mandatory for everything. Instead of making Aadhaar stringent for everything, alternate ID cards should be accepted without any reluctance. The overall purpose should be to facilitate people instead of creating obstacles to avail benefits and services.
The researcher also pointed out that Supreme Court has only made Aadhaar mandatory only for tax collection and claiming government subsidies but on other things, its requirement can be avoided and as such unnecessary. Due to the increased growth rate of the Corona pandemic in the country, the vaccination phase is under process for various age groups. But the negative point is that people are asked to bring Aadhaar card with them to get the vaccination. It means that those people who do not have Aadhaar will not be able to get the Covid-19 vaccination. This is the reason experts and researchers emphasize the acceptance of alternate ID cards for corona vaccination & lockdown travel passes. So, it is the Government’s responsibility to act in the public interest and avoid the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar in every place. The use of alternate cards should be accepted without any reluctance.