india

Updated: Aug 08, 2017 18:15 IST

Pregnant and lactating mothers will need to produce the Aadhaar card to avail the Rs 6,000 grant given under the Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana (PMMY), making it the latest scheme for which the 12-digit identity number will be mandatory.

The Union women and child development ministry, which implements the scheme, issued a notification on August 4 making Aadhar mandatory.

Under PMMY, the ministry gives Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers for the first living child to partially compensate for the wage loss, so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after the delivery of their child.

While a pregnant mother will get Rs 5,000 before the delivery of the child, another Rs 1,000 will be transferred to her account post delivery.

“Every beneficiary desirous of availing the benefits under PMMVY is hereby required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication in respect of self and her husband,” the notification states.

Any eligible beneficiary seeking the benefit, and not possessing the Aadhaar number, will have to enrol for it within 90 days of registration at anganwadi centres or primary health centres.

This is the latest social sector scheme for which the government has made the 12-digit identity number mandatory.

In February, the government brought out a notification making Aadhaar mandatory for students availing mid-day meal in government school.

A few days back, the government had issued a notification saying Aadhaar would be required for identification of the dead for the registration of deaths, but clarified later that it was “not mandatory”.

Privacy Issues

The move comes at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a petition over threat to privacy arising from the use of the digital identification numbers. Hacking or leaking of Aadhaar data has also been reported several times recently.

Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said he expects a “robust” data protection law to come up following recommendations from a panel formed for the purpose on August 1.

The committee, headed by former SC judge BN Srikrishna, will study and identify key data protection issues and recommend methods to address them.

The government has also made it mandatory to link Aadhaar number with Permanent Account Number (PAN) for filing income tax returns, and bank accounts, especially for any transaction over Rs 50,000.