Indian province to verify state job applicants’ biometrics with Aadhaar to fight fraud

Applicants for state government jobs in India’s Kerala Province will have to provide their biometrics and  Aadhaar numbers to ensure transparency in the recruitment process, according to a Kerala Public Services Commission (PSC) announcement reported by The New Indian Express.

Candidates are asked to include their Aadhaar numbers in the registration profile within a month of submitting their application, which will be verified during the process, which also features criminal record checks. A verification process for state employees was launched in 2010, but adding the applicant’s Aadhaar account enables the check to make us of fingerprint recognition to combat job fraud.

The Kerala PSC recently recommended the use of Aadhaar to combat employment fraud.

The scale of public sector employment appears to be a motivation for using biometrics, as 5.3 million people are reported to have registered with the PSC, and 3.2 million of them have linked their Aadhaar accounts to their profiles. The government intends to add the Aadhaar details of the remainder.

The process is described in the report involves on-location biometric screening before applicants write an examination.

The use of Aadhaar as a means of verifying job applicants appears somewhat novel. The world’s largest biometric identity system is facing a second legal challenge based on the constitutionality of the procedure for establishing its legal basis. The previous challenge concluded with a ruling that Aadhaar’s legal basis was sound for government services, but not private sector ones.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  identity verification  |  India