Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority has made iris scanning available at more than 5,000 counters nationwide as it expands biometric identification for children. The authority says the additional capture is intended to help prevent a child’s identity from being used to register someone else.
The expansion focuses on people under 18. NADRA media director Shabahat Ali told Express News that photographs and other biometric identifiers can strengthen registration where older records do not sufficiently distinguish one child from another. The iris facility also gives the agency another way to identify people whose fingerprints are difficult to capture, including some older adults, manual workers and people with skin conditions.
NADRA’s published rules for its Child Registration Certificate and Juvenile Card already set different capture requirements by age. For a Child Registration Certificate, children under three generally do not need biometrics, although a photograph is required if the certificate is processed for a passport. From age three to ten, the certificate requires a photograph and iris image. A Juvenile Card lists a photograph and iris image for children up to ten. Both documents add fingerprints from age ten. The authority says a child older than three must attend registration for a Child Registration Certificate, while a Juvenile Card application also requires the child to be present.
The 5,000-counter figure describes the reported availability of iris capture, not a new requirement for every child to provide fingerprints. Parents can begin a Juvenile Card application through the PakID app, which NADRA uses for identity-document services, but a visit to a registration center may still be needed for biometric capture and a photograph.
Pakistan has been widening the types of biometrics used across its identity system. NADRA said its updated rules formally recognize iris scans alongside fingerprints, while the agency told financial institutions that facial verification can be used when a person’s fingerprints cannot be obtained because of age, illness or another reason. That fallback is separate from the physical iris capture being expanded at registration counters.
The expansion follows NADRA’s rollout of a QR-enabled national ID card and its work on face checks for SIM registration. Those projects concern verification of existing identities, while the new counter capacity chiefly affects how children are registered and how other applicants can be identified when fingerprint capture fails.
Ali said an older child record without a photograph could allow one family to register its own child under another child’s identity. The added images give NADRA a way to distinguish children as their records are created and checked.
Sources: The Express Tribune, NADRA
–
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
