Aadhar Card for Kids: How to Apply for Aadhar Card for Children

Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique random number issued by the UIDAI- Unique Identification Authority of India- UIDAI, is issued to the Indian residents and is surely a new-age document that is considered as vital proof of identity. This card is issued to individuals irrespective of gender and age and is a resident of the country. The card has demographic and biometric information during the enrolment procedure and comes free of any cost. In simple language, an aadhaar is compulsory for everyone. This would imply that children will also come under this purview of having an Aadhaar card in their name. An Aadhar card for children is also issued by UIDAI. And for the first time in India, even a new-born baby is eligible for an Aadhaar card. 

The word “Aadhaar” means foundation or the main structure upon which something is built, so an Aadhaar card is the basic foundation upon which any delivery system may be constructed. Likewise, Aadhaar for kids can be used in any of the prevailing system that needs to prove the identity of a person as well as of a child to provide a secured admission for the citizen to the services or the benefits provided by the system. Aadhaar card for kids are therefore necessary and some of the main reasons as to why kids must possess an Aadhaar can be stated as below:

• Several schools’ requests parents to furnish Aadhaar card for kids at the time of admission in school, which is slowly and gradually becoming a mandatory requirement
• The Indian government made Aadhaar card for kids’ compulsory to avail the benefits of “Midday Meal Policy” and hence having an aadhaar card for the child makes sense 
• A child will miss out on important government-subsidized programs if he or she do not have any Aadhaar card

Here, we will talk more about the topic of Aadhaar card for kids and its various aspects in detail.

Aadhaar card for kids below the age of 5 years

Aadhaar for an infant below 5 years is also known as a blue aadhaar card or as Baal Aadhaar. You need to go to the nearest Aadhaar Enrolment centre for giving aadhaar card application form for the child. Before you go for enrolling of your child, some important points that you need to keep in mind

• Aadhaar card may be generated for children at all ages, below 5 years as well as the new-borns
• Biometrics of the infant will not be taken here. This is simply due to the reason, for a child below 5 years, his or her biometrics is not developed until they reach 5 years of age. And till this age, the child’s Aadhaar card would be linked to her or his parent’s or guardian’s Aadhaar
• For Aadhar card application form for child, only the photograph of the child is taken for Aadhaar
• It is mandatory to provide Aadhaar card of any one of the parents or the designated guardian
• If both parents do not have their Aadhaar, they need to get enrolled first for them for Aadhaar 
• After the child attains 5 years, he or she has to provide their biometric data of all 10 fingers including iris scan and the photograph will also be taken during this process
• A similar procedure needs to be followed when the child achieves 15 years of age

Aadhaar card for kids between the age of 5-15 years

An Aadhaar card for kidsbetween 5 years to 15 years is issued in the same way as adults. There are some relevant features of issuing Aadhaar for this category of children

• If you had applied Aadhaar for your child earlier when he or she was less than 5 years of age, then there will be no modification in his or her Aadhaar card number
• The procedure of enrolment is identical to that of adults and the difference between these two methods is the category of documents that needs to be submitted
• Your child under this age group would need to get the biometric data, i.e., all 10 fingerprints, iris scan as well as photograph updated when he attains 15 years of age and this would be the final biometric data for your child that will be considered
• You need to furnish the birth certificate for all the above cases
• You can always update the biometric data later in case the existing biometrics does not match in near future

How to apply for aadhaar card for a child below the age of 5 years?

An Aadhar card for kidsbelow 5 years of age can be done both online and offline. Aadhaar card for child online registration would mean fixing up the appointment by visiting the UIDAI official site, however, you need to visit the Aadhaar Enrolment Centre physically for enrolment with the necessary documents of the parents, as applicable. And the offline procedure is directly visiting the nearest Aadhaar Enrolment Centre and complete the enrolment process for your child. Let us see both the procedures in detail as below.

• Visit the official website of UIDAI https://uidai.gov.in/and click on “Book Appointment” below “Get Aadhaar” under “My Aadhaar” in the homepage as below

• Select the state or union territory where you reside and choose the enrolment centre accordingly
• You will be taken to another page where you need to fill in your mobile number and complete the captcha verification

• You will see three options as shown above and you need to click on New Aadhaar and proceed accordingly
• You will get to see a page like below where you need to choose the option correctly and fill the same

• Fill up the details for your child in the “Personal Details” tab and then choose the time slot and submit to fix an appointment 

• Visit the nearby  Aadhaar Enrolment Centre as per the appointment
• You need to fill the Aadhaar Enrolment Form giving your Aadhaar number 
• As mentioned above, the Aadhaar number for anyone parent needs to be provided for enrolling Aadhar card for kidsbelow 5 years
• The only photograph will be taken for your child and no fingerprints and iris scan are taken for children below 5 years of age
• The residence address and other demographic particulars are taken from the parent’s or guardian’s Aadhaar
• You need to submit the child’s birth certificate
• The Aadhaar officer will give to you the acknowledgment having the enrolment number or EID for you to track the status of the Aadhaar application
• You will receive your child’s Aadhaar ideally within 90 days’ time period

How to apply for aadhaar card for a child above the age of 5?

Under this age group also, the process of fixing the appointment online remains the same after which you need to visit the Aadhaar Enrolment Centre. Let us see the below steps for the same:

You have to follow these steps for enrolling your child between 5 to 15 years of age for Aadhaar:

• Visit the nearby  Aadhaar Enrolment Centre as per the appointment
• Fill in the Aadhaar Enrolment Form for your child
• You need to mention your Aadhaar number and details where you do not have a valid proof of address for your child
• Submit the form together with the applicable documents to the Aadhaar officer
• Next step would be, your child’s biometrics data will be captured which included his or her 10 fingerprints, iris scan, and photograph 
• After the process is finished, an acknowledgement slip will be given to you
• The acknowledgement slip has the enrolment ID that will have the enrolment number date, and time of the enrolment
• You can use the enrolment ID for tracking the application 
• The Aadhaar card is sent to your address within 90 days of enrolment
• When your child attains 15 years of age, he or she has to go to the Enrolment Centre and update the biometric data in UIDAI’s database

Documents required for aadhaar card for kids

The documentation for aadhaar card for kids is very simple and easy to get and they are:

• Birth Certificate of the child or any Photo ID provided by the child’s school
• Details of Parents Aadhar card with proof of address and proof of identity

1. Documents required for Aadhaar card for kids below 5 years of age
   There are not too many documents needed for the Aadhaar enrolment of your kids. The documents can be listed as below:
   
   • Child’s Birth Certificate
   • Details of Aadhaar card for the child’s parents- Anyone
   • Parent’s proof of address
   • Parent’s proof of identity
     
2. Documents required for Aadhaar card for kids between 5 and 15 years of ageFor enrolment of Aadhaar card for kids of more than 5 years of age, the following documents are needed:
   • Child’s Birth Certificate 
   • School ID Card

Documents for address proof as address

Providing address proof during enrolment of Aadhaar card for kids is an easy procedure. You need to submit any one of the below documents needs to be submitted as the Address proof:

• Aadhaar card for one parent
• Address certificate that is issued by an MP or an MLA or a Gazetted Officer or Tehsildar on their letterhead having the photograph of the child
• Address certificate that is issued by Village Panchayat head or its equal authority for rural areas only

Fee for enrolment for Aadhaar card for kids

Enrolment of Aadhaar is voluntary and is free of charge for everyone and that includes a child as well of any age group.

• Nil fee is charged for enrolling the child for Aadhaar
• Cost of all Aadhaar enrolment is taken care of by the Indian government
• Also, when your child goes for the biometric update after he or she reaches 5 or 15 years of age, no fee is charged from the child or the parent
• Any demographic data update during the above period, you need to pay a nominal fee of INR 30
• Any future update in the biometric details in Aadhaar, a charge of INR 30 needs to be paid

Bal Aadhaar 

Though you may feel that an aadhaar is not required for an infant, considering the increasing importance of an Aadhaar and the facility provided by UIDAI for aadhaar for kids, it’s advisable that you must enroll for kids aadhaar.

Aadhaar for kids under 5 years is also identified as Bal Aadhar and is issued with blue colour. The card has all the relevant contents as in a regular Aadhar card. Aadhaar for kids is valid until the child reaches 5 years of age. The blue aadhaar card expires after the child is over 5 years of age and it is then substituted with a regular Aadhar card. For substituting Bal Aadhar, the parent must make sure to have the child’s biometric information updated by visiting the Aadhaar enrolment centre when the child attains the age of 5 years. The image of blue aadhaar card is shown as below

mAadhaar for children

Parents of children get the facility to register their cell number with their kid’s Aadhaar card and use the mAdhaar app to have the Aadhaar card of their child handy in their smartphone. The mAadhaar app is crafted in a way so that it can add to 3 Aadhaar cards. You can access the Aadhaar card of your child anytime and anyplace and can use it as the identity or address proof. Parents can have this facility of kids aged below 5 years as well as children between 5 to 15 years.

UIDAI has given the facility of downloading your e-Aadhaar through mobile applications and with this you can carry an e-Aadhaar for your child. The name of this application is mAadhaar which you will be able to download on your Smartphone and can use the same. 

So, what are you waiting for, go ahead and apply for your kids Aadhaar as soon as possible, if not done till now and give your child the most dependable and reliable proof of identity and address?