(FE)
Given Aadhaar’s proven track record in ensuring no leakages in various welfare schemes, it is not surprising the proposed National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) talks of using Aadhaar in identifying beneficiaries at the time of hospitalisation. What is worrying, however, is that the consultation paper circulated for discussion with various stakeholders is somewhat ambiguous about whether this will be compulsory. So, at one place, the document says “The beneficiaries will be encouraged to bring Aadhaar for the purpose of identification”. And while it has the standard disclaimer, “However, no person will be denied benefits under the scheme in the absence of Aadhaar”, among the roles and responsibilities of the nodal State Health Agency (SHA) is “Aadhaar seeding”.
But then, to add to the confusion, the rules talk of how the ration card number will be collected from potential beneficiaries—10 crore households to be identified by the SECC lists—and that, apart from Aadhaar, any other valid government document/ID will be accepted. In another place, the consultation paper talks of how, if the beneficiary does not have an Aadhaar, he will need to produce either an Aadhaar or an enrolment slip for the next treatment. Given the large potential for fake claims, the government has to ensure the exceptions to Aadhaar-based biometric IDs are very minimal; more so since, by now, over 90% of Indians have Aadhaar IDs.
