ALSO READ: Supreme Court says Aadhaar can’t be made mandatory for govt welfare schemesAnd one of the preconditions of Aadhaar being used as a tool for tackling corruption rests on Aadhaar being universal. While it did help Aadhaar to expand its footprint to millions of citizens by force, the success of Aadhaar in reducing corruption remains an open question. Although the UIDAI does not provide the number of enrolments by income classes, the fact that only 35,000 (as on 18 March 2017) individuals have Aadhaar enrolment in the New Delhi district is a good indication of how the privileged class has avoided getting themselves enrolled for Aadhaar while advocating Aadhaar for everybody else. The recent attempt by the government to link Aadhaar with PAN numbers is an attempt to force these individuals to get into the Aadhaar ecosystem. In a strange way, rather than Aadhaar being the foundation for a corruption-free system, it has used the same public services which it wants to cure of corruption as the foundation for extending its coverage.

Source: Mint March 27, 2017 17:37 UTC