Adopted children to get Aadhaar cards

New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) In a bid to give an identity to adopted children, the women and child development ministry Saturday said it will issue Aadhaar cards to all the children residing in adoption homes across India.

The decision was taken at the two-day meeting on adoption organised by the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), an autonomous body under the women and child development ministry that concluded in the national capital Saturday.

"The ministry's proposed guidelines are child-centric and to give identity to children, Aadhaar cards will be issued to all the children in the adoption homes across India. This has already been started as a pilot project in Delhi," Veerendra Mishra, CARA secretary, said during the conference.

The conference was inaugurated by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, who directed all the stakeholders to make every possible effort to ensure that the interests of the children are given the utmost importance in the process of adoption.

She also said that the stakeholders should make sure that the entire process of adoption should not take more than four months.

Ashok Kumar, ADG, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said Aadhaar cards will empower the children with a unique identity of their own which can be verified and authenticated online and thus it will eliminate false identities.