Unique Identification Number (UID) authorities have tied up with Credai (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India) to access data on 40-50 million construction workers to bring them under the UID project.
Building and construction industry is the second largest employer in India after the agriculture sector and contributes 8 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product.
“As most of the workers in this industry are migrants, we will seek the help of associations like Credai to collate data on workers,” said Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the UID project.
Nilekani added that he was not seeking any monetary support from the associations. He only requested them to align their efforts to make this project successful and facilitate the issuing of UID.
UID is an ambitious initiative of the government to achieve multiple objectives by providing identification numbers to every Indian citizen.
It is seen as a step different from Census, as it collates a lot more information about an individual. UID authorities have also signed a deal with Census of India, wherein its data will be collected as per the standards set by UID.
“We are in talks with the state governments and have signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. We will be signing such MoUs with more states in the next two weeks,” said Nilekani.
