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In Two Villages In UP And Rajasthan, Aadhaar Cards Have A Story To Tell: Almost Everyone's Born On The Same Day

Not really.
An Indian visitor gives a thumb impression to withdraw money from his bank account.
NOAH SEELAM via Getty Images
An Indian visitor gives a thumb impression to withdraw money from his bank account.

The mysteries of the Aadhaar card are one too many.

Recently, a 35-year-old man called Saddam from Rajasthan attempted to get an Aadhaar card in the name of slain terrorist and Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Now, a stranger case has come to light from a village of Uttar Pradesh's Kanjasa.

According to a PTI report, some 1000 of these villagers should be celebrating their birthday on the same day -- January 1. At least that's what their Aadhaar cards say.

Every fifth person in Kanjasa has their birthday on the same date, and it's of course not a co-incidence. It's a technical goof.

"Nearly 1000 (of the 5000) residents have complained about faulty entries of their date of birth. The odd thing is that the date printed on all these cards is identical - January 1 - with variations in the years of birth," Neeraj Dubey, Block Development Officer (BDO), Jasra, under which the village falls, told PTI.

The authorities have now ordered a probe.

The BDO officer said an inquiry had been ordered into how an error of "such a huge proportion" occurred.

He said there was speculation that the software for the cards was so designed, as to automatically allocate January 1 as the birth date of those not aware of their actual dates of birth.

However, that did not quite explain why those who had submitted their dates of birth with proper documents also ended up being shown as born on January 1.

It's not just this village.

Another Times Of India report notes that over 250 people from a village in Pokhran in Rajasthan were registered as having been born on January 1. "This has happened due to the carelessness of e-Mitra managers. When this was brought to their notice, forget taking action, the officers did not even discuss the issue," a villager told ToI.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.