Indian ID card soon to be made mandatory for expats

As of now, Indian nationals living in the UAE have to travel and personally apply to government offices to get the Aadhaar card.

But officials at the Indian Embassy in the UAE said that when cards are made mandatory, changes may allow Indian nationals to apply from abroad.

“A suggestion to make provision for Indian nationals (NRIs) to apply for card in UAE was made during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in January this year. The suggestions have been forwarded to the concerned department in India. But so far a decision is not yet taken. Now NRIs in UAE need to apply for the card in India,” said T.P. Seetharam, Indian Ambassador to the UAE.

According to the Unique Identification Authority of India, under the Planning Commission of India, Aadhaar (means support in Hindi) is a 12- digit individual identification number that will be unique to an individual and will remain valid for the remainder of their life. The number is linked to the person’s demographic and biographic information.

The scheme was launched in 2009.

The data collected will help agencies and service providers across India to weed out fake identities. It is said that having an Aadhaar number will provide easy access to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other government and nongovernment services in the near future. This identification number will also serve as official proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

Those non-resident Indians from UAE who had applied for the card said that they did so while they were in India for vacation. Many are yet to be aware of the scheme and do not want to bother unless it becomes mandatory to apply.

“There were special centres opened at my hometown in Kerala. I was there on vacation and thought why not apply for it. This was some eight months back. I have yet to receive it. I am told that in future this card is going to be mandatory. According to news reports the card will make life easier in dealing with government departments in India. It will be a great help if that happens,” Krishnadas Warrier, a Dubai-based accountant, said.

“I have yet to apply for it. As long as it is not mandatory, why should I bother to stand in queue and waste my time,” Abudulla Kutty N.P, a Dubai-based cashier, said.

Vivek Raghunathan is a Sharjah-based schoolteacher and is a holder of Aadhaar card. According to him the card should be made mandatory. “During the time of applying for the card one is needed to go through the finger tip and iris biometric scanning. In my opinion this is good because it will eradicate duplication in areas like banks, legal issues etc.   Gulf News