Aadhaar is not mandatory for registration on Co-WIN portal, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey informed Lok Sabha on Friday. Providing details about the Co-WIN portal, which has been created along with the CoWin mobile app to streamline the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India, he said it has been developed by the Ministry of Health, Government of India with the support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India Office. 

On whether Aadhaar is mandatory for registering on the Co-WIN application, Choubey, in a written reply, said, “No, Aadhaar is not mandatory for registration on Co-WIN portal”. He further said that a total Rs. 58.90 lakhs has been incurred on Co-WIN, as on February 1 this year.  

On whether any privacy impact assessments were carried out to develop the application, Choubey said, “Yes, 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).” 

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