In 2008, the government of India launched Project Aadhaar to give every citizen a unique identity card. The government stated the lack of efficient and reliable identification in the welfare system was one of the main reasons for leakages and exclusion. As of March 2023, the government has integrated Aadhaar with over 1,670 union and state-level social welfare, DBT and good governance programmes. The government is attributing considerable savings to the reduction in leakages. 

Some programmes make the Aadhaar number mandatory to receive welfare payments creating a fair chance of being excluded if a genuine beneficiary can’t authenticate his/her Aadhaar. This study looks into Aadhaar utilisation in school education in Maharashtra to identify the issues with Aadhaar-based demographic authentication.