Aadhaar details not mandatory on Co-WIN portal, says minister Ashwini Choubey

Submission of Aadhaar card details are not mandatory to register on the Co-WIN portal, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey informed the Lok Sabha.

In a written reply to the question of whether the Aadhaar details are compulsory, Choubey stated: “No, Aadhaar is not mandatory for registration on Co-WIN portal.” He said that ₹58.90 lakh has been incurred on Co-WIN, as on February 1 this year.”

Choubey provided details about the Co-WIN portal, created along with the CoWin mobile app for an effective COVID-19 vaccination drive in India. He said it has been developed by the Ministry of Health with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India Office.

Choubey said privacy impact assessments were carried out for Co-WIN portal. “For data safety, data is encrypted using a highly secure key, no unauthorised access to database on AWS server is allowed and restricted access to relational database service (to decrease the risk of malicious activities).”

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The Co-WIN application follows the privacy policy as stated in the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), he said.

The Co-WIN application comes with five different modules to effectively track and register COVID-19 vaccination. It includes: Administrator module, Registration module, Vaccination module, Beneficiary Acknowledgement module, and Report module.

The mobile app is also an upgraded version of the eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network) and will be available to download for free via the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app may also launch on Jio phones that run on KaiOS.

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Those who are not frontline health workers will be able to register for the vaccine via the ‘Registration Module’. The app is being used now as a back-end software during COVID-19 vaccination drive.

India started its nationwide vaccination drive on January 16 and has vaccinated close to 4 million health workers so far.