As all (or at least most) of Government schemes and plans go, the enumeration process of Aadhaar and NPR is being carried out in a manner in which nobody seems to have any clue about what's happening or is being done.

There are enumeration camps, but neither the Government nor UIDAI has bothered to inform the people of the location of the camps. The Aadhaar web site is silent on the location of the camps. UIDAI too has not bothered to update its site. For instance, the districts list under Tamil Nadu has just one – Puducherry (which is a Union Territory). Though the camps are functioning, the privacy concerns have not been sorted out. The Government does not seem to be bothered at all. In fact, the question in the Aadhaar form asking for ‘Information Sharing Consent’ (see picture) has ‘Yes’ by default. You realise it only after you get the acknowledgment slip in your hand after the process is over. And by the time it is over, you are so exhausted that you want to get away from the place that you don’t really bother about the small check mark that takes your consent for sharing information for granted.

Isn’t there supposed to be Aadhaar forms to be filled up, which will ask for our consent for ‘information sharing’? No. There are no forms. Your data from the NPR enumeration done a few years ago is taken for Aadhaar and is pre-filled in the system.

Do you have any doubts about NPR, Aadhaar or the process itself? If you have, you have to live with it. The enumeration camps are run by the contracted agencies and there are no senior officials present to clarify your doubts.

Now that both Aadhaar and NPR have been merged, are the camps for Aadhaar or NPR? Looks like it doesn’t matter anymore, because of the merged data, but the acknowledgement slip given after the enumeration has the e-mail ID and web site address of the Census Department. If you have the NPR enumeration slip and an identity document such as the ration card or driving licence, it is enough.

NPR and Aadhaar have discounted the fact that people live in apartments, too. If you try to give your apartment number (well, the card is going to the mother of all address/identity proofs), you are told only the ‘house number’ will be recorded.

Though you are told that “any correction” has to be carried out within 90 days, a message posted at the enumeration centre gives you a friendly warning: “No Corrections”. Yes, now you have to hunt for the place where they will make corrections, if any, including insertion of the apartment number.

Now, is Aadhaar mandatory? What about NPR? Isn’t it mandatory for all citizens to register for NPR? One report says that if you have registered for NPR, and not for Aadhaar, you will anyway get a card. And because NPR and Aadhaar data have been merged, does it mean that you are automatically registered for Aadhaar if you are in the NPR list? Some say yes, some say no. But none of the officials is sure. Neither are we.

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