Methodology Note Methodology Note Methodology Note RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY This report relies on two nationwide surveys conceptualised, designed, managed, and analysed by the Dalberg team with support for data collection from specialist organisations. These are: The State of Aadhaar 2019 report is the third entry in the State of Aadhaar series that launched in 2016. 1. A pulse survey of a panel of 147,868 households in 28 states and union territories State of Aadhaar added a 10-minute questionnaire to the triannual CHPS household panel survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). These questions captured critical metrics on the adoption of Aadhaar and people’s experience around it. For part of this questionnaire (Aadhaar enrolment status, errors and some usage questions), we captured data for all household members, a total of 575,127 people. This survey was conducted between May and August 2019. 2. An in-depth 45-minute survey of 19,209 households across 16 states and 1 union territory State of Aadhaar conducted a separate deep-dive survey to uncover the nuances of people’s experience with Aadhaar. It included a wide range of questions on enrolment, updates and use of Aadhaar for services— particularly three welfare services (PDS, MGNREGS and social pensions) and two non-welfare services (telecom and banking). Considering the Supreme Court ruling of 2018, the survey also included some questions on schools to test on-ground implementation of the court’s orders. This survey employed stratified random sampling across the country and oversampled populations who are typically not covered by household surveys. The objective of the 2019 edition is to generate datasets on people’s experiences with Aadhaar across India and promote a data-driven discourse on Aadhaar. To that end, this edition aims to answer the following key research questions from the point of view of residents: • Aadhaar enrolment How many are enrolled? Who is not yet enrolled—and why? • Aadhaar updates: How many updates are needed, i.e., how common are errors? Do errors get corrected? What is the update experience? And why do people find it easy or difficult? • Using Aadhaar to access services: How widely and how frequently is Aadhaar used? What is the experience of using Aadhaar for key services (PDS, MGNREGS, social pensions, SIM cards, and bank accounts)? And if residents face problems with Aadhaar, how does that affect their access to services? • Across the journey: We also sought to understand how satisfied people are with Aadhaar overall— what benefits and challenges do they see? Do they trust the system? A user journey framework guided our enquiry along these research questions. The study followed people’s journey with Aadhaar from the enrolment stage to updating their information to using Aadhaar for various services. The study also followed those who dropped off at various points along this journey for reasons including but not limited to lack of Aadhaar, failure to link Aadhaar to service IDs and authentication failure. Dalberg created the research design and questionnaire. Kantar Public conducted the survey between July and September 2019, with close day-to-day oversight from Dalberg. The raw data were exclusively accessed and analysed by Dalberg. After completing data collection and preliminary analyses for the surveys, we followed up with Human Centred Design (HCD) research. This helped us probe deeper into the survey findings and uncover the why and how behind some of the most interesting trends displayed by the data. We interviewed over 100 people in their homes, communities and workplaces using a range of HCD research methods, such as 1:1 in-depth interviews, intercepts, small-group discussions, activity-led sessions, and observational walk-throughs. This research took place in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Assam and Bihar. These efforts enabled us to better understand the human stories behind the data and uncover further areas for research. In the interest of encouraging a data-driven discourse, raw datasets from both surveys and a data dashboard are publicly accessible on the State of Aadhaar website. This report distils the key findings from the research, but far more data are available. The State of Aadhaar website www.stateofaadhaar.in hosts both the full, raw dataset and a data dashboard that allows anyone to explore key variables by states and demographics. We encourage policymakers, researchers, and industry actors to engage with the dataset and use it for their own research and decision making. Reader’s note In our findings, we report numbers from the larger dataset (pulse survey) whenever possible. Most findings, however, are from the The surveys and report leaned on guidance and inputs from subject matter experts as well as the general public. The report incorporated inputs from more than 30 experts including government officials and policymakers, legal advisors, technologists, researchers and others. Additionally, nine experts were involved as technical and advisory panellists to provide ongoing guidance as the study evolved. In preparation for the study we also conducted field visits in seven locations across Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where we spoke to residents about their experience with Aadhaar. These exploratory discussions, together with the survey pilots, conducted with 10,253 people in 28 states, helped us formulate questions and refine our survey instruments. 41 in-depth survey since this covered far more questions. From this pulse survey we projected India-wide population estimates. From the in-depth survey we only projected population estimates for the states and union territories covered in that survey. The 2019 State of Aadhaar surveys are not comparable to the 2018 State of Aadhaar survey because the latter was conducted only in rural areas of three states. The methodology for the 2019 study has also been updated to reflect feedback from the previous year’s survey. Numbers in graphs may not match those reported in the text or they may not sum to 100% because of rounding, non-responses, or responses of “don’t know.” 42