Over 1.73 lakh children living in child care institutions get Aadhaar cards

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Over 1.73 lakh children living in childcare institutions in 22 states have been provided Aadhaar cards to make them more self-reliant, officials said on Monday.

Bank accounts of over 60,000 children living in these institutions have also been opened, they said. The minimum age fixed by the RBI to open a bank account is 10 years.

A senior official said the step would help provide identity to these children and make them self-reliant.

States were requested by the Centre to expedite the process of issuing Aadhaar cards and opening of bank accounts. They were asked to issue necessary directions to the authorities concerned to prepare Aadhaar cards and open bank accounts of all children living in the CCIs, the official said.

"Based on the information received from 22 states/UTs by the end of the year, 1,73,624 children in the child care institutions were provided Aadhaar cards and bank accounts of 60,894 children in CCIs were opened," he said.

There are a total of 2,61,566 children living in over 9,000 CCIs across the country.

The Aadhaar cards are also being linked to the Track Child portal to bolster the information base on the number of children under institutional care, the official said. 

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