Shillong, September 24: The Meghalaya government and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have called for coordinated and time-bound efforts to enrol more children under Aadhaar and improve mandatory biometric update coverage across the state.
The issues were discussed during the 2026 meeting of the State-Level Unique Identification Implementation Committee held in Shillong on Thursday.
Chief Secretary Dr. Shakil P. Ahammed chaired the meeting, which reviewed the progress of Aadhaar enrolment, demographic updates and authentication in Meghalaya.
UIDAI Deputy Director General Ngachan Zimik, Director Lt. Col. Swapan Kumar Saxena and senior officials of the state government attended the meeting.
Zimik said Aadhaar enrolment, updates and authentication had shown an upward trend in the state, but several areas still required focused intervention.
The meeting stressed the need to accelerate Aadhaar enrolment among children below five years through Birth Registration Based Aadhaar Enrolment at district hospitals and other health facilities. The process uses a child’s Birth Registration Number.
Officials also discussed measures to increase enrolment in districts with low Aadhaar saturation and improve the coverage of Mandatory Biometric Updates among children.
The School Education Department was encouraged to organise special biometric update drives in schools.
UIDAI suggested integrating students’ biometric update status with the UDISE+ portal so that schools can identify children whose Aadhaar biometrics need to be updated.
The meeting also called for maximum utilisation of the Aadhaar enrolment kits available in the state.
Zimik said timely biometric updates could prevent students from encountering authentication problems while accessing government schemes and scholarships or appearing for competitive examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET.
Officials also discussed digitising state government documents that are currently available only in non-digital formats and incorporating QR codes to enable verification of their authenticity.
The expansion of Aadhaar authentication for transparent and efficient delivery of government services was also considered.
Zimik briefed officials on the features of the new Aadhaar App, including offline and QR-based verification, biometric locking and unlocking, and simplified onboarding of Offline Verification Seeking Entities.
The facilities could be used for verification at hotels and hospitals and for confirming a person’s age, among other applications.
Concluding the meeting, Ahammed directed departments to work closely with the UIDAI Regional Office in Guwahati to address identified gaps and achieve the targets within a fixed timeframe.
Commissioner and Secretary Pravin Bakshi, Secretary Swapnil Tembe and senior officials from various state government departments were among those present.
