Getting Aadhaar: Enrolment And Updates Getting Aadhaar: Enrolment And Updates Residents are trying to correct errors; many succeed but they find the process difficult The most common error for information visible on the Aadhaar card was an incorrect date of birth. 27 Error rates were lower than 1% for other fields like name, gender, address, and photographs (see Figure 8). 28 Many (40%) of those who had an error in their Aadhaar information had tried to update it—one in five failed. Residents reported that updating was the most difficult of all Aadhaar-related processes (see Figure 9). 30 The error rate for mobile phone numbers (not visible on the Aadhaar card) is the highest, affecting 15% of Aadhaar holders above age 15. 29 Figure 9: Share of people who describe specific Aadhaar-related processes as difficult Many (39%) Aadhaar holders had not given a number at all, and some % of respondents who attempted the process (7%) did not know whether they had linked a number. As a result, less than half (39%) of all adult Aadhaar holders had a correct number linked to their ID. While the impact of mobile phone number inaccuracy may currently be low, it will grow in the future: new Aadhaar features are increasingly based on mobile phone access. Figure 8: Error rates by type of data % of primary respondents and their household members over 15 years of age who have Aadhaar (N = 16,513) (N = 1,499) (N = 9,196) (N = 2,882) (N = 1,542) (N = 6,091) 4% report at least one error on their Aadhaar card 0.5% report an error in their name 0.6% report an error in their address Despite efforts to improve the update process (such as online updates and self-service centres), it does not appear to have become easier over time. 31 Meanwhile the number of updates has been increasing: 24% of people who updated last did so in 2019. Errors primarily arise from two situations: a mistake made while recording information during enrolment or a change in people’s circumstances that is not updated in their Aadhaar information (e.g., a name change after Name: XXXX XXXX Address: S/O: XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXXX XXX XXX, XXX XXXXX XXX. DOX: XX/XX/XXXX Gender: X XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 2.5% report an error in their date of birth 0.3% report an error in their gender 0.5% report an error in their photograph 15% report an error in their mobile number < 1% report an error in their biometric information marriage or a change of address or mobile phone number). Ten per cent of adults report that their Aadhaar was incorrect at the time of issuance. Even if all future cards are issued correctly, updates will continue to be necessary: since enrolling in Aadhaar, 12% of people have experienced life changes that affected their Aadhaar data. 32 stories behind the data "When I started my job at the factory, they told me I would not get my provident fund because the date of birth on my Aadhaar was wrong. If I go to the update centre in the city, I have to miss work for the day. But I’ve lost out on two months’ worth of provident fund already, so I finally did the update.” Palanethra, Factory Worker, Karnataka Often people were initially unaware of errors in their Aadhaar Source: State of Aadhaar pulse survey, 2019 (N = 479,099); Source for biometric errors: State of Aadhaar in-depth survey, 2019 (N = 16,201) information, and only discovered them when they were trying to Note: Respondent and their household members present during the interview were asked to respond on behalf of themselves and all absent household members over 15 years of age. access a service, such as rations or a scholarship benefit for their children. This resulted in rushed attempts to update Aadhaar cards in order to prevent losing the service. Source: SoA Human Centred Design Research 2019 27. 28. 29. 13 SoA pulse survey 2019. SoA pulse survey 2019. SoA pulse survey 2019. People cannot always know whether their biometric data are correct. Nevertheless, <1% of people reported biometric errors, and more than half of those have felt the need to update their biometrics. 30. 31. 32. There may be some recall bias in the comparison between enrolments and updates -- events that lie further in the past (enrolment) may be remembered less vividly than more recent ones (updates). The share of people who found updating to be difficult held steady at 35%-37% from 2016 to 2019. UIDAI introduced a Self Service Update Portal (SSUP) in 2016 - an online facility to update Aadhaar information through the use of a registered mobile phone number. The most commonly cited change was a change in mobile phone number (not printed on the card). 14