Think Piece 2: Aadhaar Verification: What is the solution to its problems by Jai Arya

In March 2017, the government of India under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) passed official orders making it mandatory to link Aadhaar with important welfare schemes including the Public Distribution System (PDS) for subsidized rations, MGNREGA for employment wages, pensions to locals, and paying scholarships of students. It was integrated under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, which made Aadhaar the only way to be used as identifying beneficiaries for receiving government facilities and subsidies. This involved including biometric authentication into the Public Distribution System (PDS) through electronic Point-of-Sale (ePoS) machines at ration shops, where beneficiaries needed to scan their fingerprints or iris to receive subsidized food grains. This policy aimed to reduce fraud and duplication but didn't have an alternative method of access, which meant any failure in Aadhaar linking or  biometric authentication resulted in the denial of access to essential services.

This new system had various systematic and technical flaws that further harmed the already vulnerable. Multiple citizens, including the rural low-income people, elderly, and laborers faced many biometric authentication failures due to worn fingers and poor connectivity. Furthermore, others were excluded because their Aadhaar numbers were either not linked correctly or linked to the wrong bank or ration card. Due to no existing alternative method of access for those who couldn't identify themselves as suitable beneficiaries could no longer access essential food and income support leading to detrimental consequences. In September 2017, 11 year-old Santoshi Kumari from Jharkhand died after going six days without food because her family’s ration card had been cancelled for not being linked to Aadhaar, despite their repeated attempts to correct the error. Around the same time, 60 year-old Ruplal Marandi, a farmer, also died in Jharkhand after two months of ration denial due to biometric failures.According to a Reuters report over one million ration cards were cancelled in Jharkhand following an April 2017 directive mandating Aadhaar linkage. The poor - especially those who were illiterate and did not have access to digital infrastructure were being excluded from welfare schemes made for the purpose to help them and due to errors in a system they did not design. 

In an effort by the government to solve these issues, they introduced Aadhaar (Authentication and Offline Verification) Amendment Regulations, 2024, issued by the UIDAI. Aiming to reduce dependence on the biometric scans by allowing offline KYC methods to access welfare schemes. While this intended to help those facing fingerprint mismatches, its impact was low. Rural and low-income individuals lacked awareness, making implementation harder. For instance, in Gujarat, June 2025, nearly 10 lakh ration beneficiaries were denied food due to failed e-KYC, despite the existence of offline verification options. Similarly, in Rajasthan, 80-year-old Chunni Bai Salvi lost her monthly ration entitlement after repeated biometric failures, even though her family was eligible under the Public Distribution System.