The government of India uses a 12 digit number called Aadhaar to track its population. 12 digits are made up of digits from 1 to 9 including zero. But the first digit cannot be a zero. Aadhaar card importance has increased tremendously due to the Covid-19 pandemic prevailing in the country. The rate of corona spread is very high in India as compared to the rest of the world. Hospitals are using Aadhaar as a controlling tool for the vaccination of the people. UIDAI is the organization that fully controls the operating process of the enrollment process and any update therein. It has been around 10 years since UIDAI came into existence, but over 90% of the residents of India have been enrolled in the database.
If you are an Indian who lives overseas, then you have to count the total number of days in a year in which you were in India. If it is less than 182 days, then you are not a resident of India. You will fall in the definition of non-resident Indian and as such you are not eligible to apply for an Aadhaar card. Once you apply for the Aadhaar at any Aadhaar center, you should expect to receive your card within 90 days maximum time via the Indian postal service. Usually, people get the card within 2 months. However, if you are in severe need of the Aadhaar, you can download Eaadhaar from the UIDAI’s official web portal.
First-time enrollment is absolutely free for Aadhaar. However, charges for any update in Aadhaar varies from case to case. Changes are not free. If you want any change in demographic detail, then you have to pay ₹50. On the other hand, any change in biometrics will levy ₹100. These two amounts are fixed and cannot be increased by any amount. However, there is news that staff at some aadhar centers are asking higher amounts from Aadhaar holders. Keeping in view these issues in mind, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has decided to launch a complaint management system to curb the corruption in charging the fees. Initially, there was no system in place to inform UIDAI. Now, the Authority has issued three different methods to make a complaint against mal-practices happening in the Aadhaarkendra. These are toll-free numbers, email, and online methods.
Toll-Free Number – In order to make a complaint against extra payment demand in the Aadhaar center, you can call on number 1947. This is a free number means you will not be charged in your bill for making this call.
Email – You can lodge a complaint via email mode as well. For this, UIDAI had specifically reserved an email address [email protected]. Try to send an email from a professional-looking email address so that your message could not be placed in the Junk or Spam folder of UIDAI.
Online mode – If you have access to a computer and the internet and have skills to use the web, you can create a complaint at the UIDAI compliant web portal located at resident.uidai.gov.in/file-complaint.