DigiYatra hits a roadblock as plan to go paperless at airports hits Aadhaar hurdle

Representative image

DigiYatra, a government scheme aimed at making flying easier for passengers who decide to link their Aadhaar card to the airlines and other associated service providers at airports, has hit an obstacle after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) denied sharing the biometric data with aviation authorities for security reasons.

As per a report in The Economic Times, a senior aviation ministry official under the condition of anonymity said, “UIDAI has refused to share biometric data with us due to security reasons. Now, we are looking at other identity options to implement the scheme.”

DigiYatra was envisaged to make entry to airports faster, paperless and possibly without any human intervention. The authorities are now looking at other options like the passport or an identity card. However, the benefits that Aadhaar could have offered would be difficult to achieve with any other option.

By linking Aadhaar with the aviation authorities, a passenger could swiftly walk through the security scanning devices with biometric solutions embedded in them. The authorities were planning to create a database, categorizing passengers as being frequent fliers or not and making it easier for frequent fliers to have a more convenient access, maybe even without being frisked. The Aadhaar database would have been the foundation of this paperless experience.

Recently, UIDAI had also refused to share Aadhaar data with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for crime investigations. The NCRB required the data to help police catch first-time offenders and identify bodies which were unidentifiable.

The recent instances of leakage of Aadhaar data have raised a lot of questions about the security of the biometrics of Indians. UIDAI is now highly wary of sharing Aadhaar details with any external agency.