Keeping the physical copies of important documents safe is a pain point for many. We often come across people who lose / misplace important documents like PAN card, Aadhaar card, passport, driving license, voter’s ID etc.
Government of India, as part of its Digital India initiative, decided to help citizens tackle this problem. In 2015, Centre introduced a digital solution to this problem of needing important, mostly government-issued documents, in the form of a mobile application – DigiLocker.
This Aadhaar-based platform, a locker where citizens can keep their documents safe on cloud storage, is available for download and is working quite well for the people. The idea is to reduce the use of physical, original documents.
Here’s how it works:
STEP 01
Sign up using your Aadhaar card number
For this to work,Khowever, you need a mobile number that is linked to your Aadhaar number. In case you had given a landline number at the time of enrolling for Aadhaar, you will have to go to an Aadhaar centre near you and get the number changed to a mobile number.
Alternatively, you can sign up using your mobile number, Google and Facebook accounts, but for the application to do what it is meant to, Aadhaar integration is mandatory.
Once you sign up with your Aadhaar card number, you will reach this page (on the Android app).
Since your Aadhaar verification has been completed, the app shows that you have “1 Issued Documents”.
Under notifications, you can see messages saying you can get various documents you’d want to store on the app, that is, on the cloud.
STEP 02
Example: Getting your driver’s license
On the Android app, you can either go to the tab called “ISSUED” and search for the documents you want the application to fetch, or you can simply click on the notifications seen on the “DASHBOARD” page.
For instance, imagine you want the application to fetch your driver’s license. Click on the notification and you will be taken to this page –
Your name as on your Aadhaar card will be already visible there. Key in your driving license number in the following format –
(STATE CODE + DISTRICT CODE)(YEAR OF ISSUANCE)(THREE OR FOUR ZEROES AS PER CASE)(NUMBER)
For instance, if the number on your driver’s license is 13/456/2008 and it was issued in Kerala’s Kannur district, you will have to key in “KL1320080000456” as your number.
KL – Code for Kerala
13 – Code for Kannur
2008 – Year of issuance
0000 – Four zeroes since your number has only three digits (456)
456 – Number
In case the number on your driver’s license is 13/2840/2009 and it was issued in Kerala’s Kanur district, you will have to key in “KL1320090002840” as your number.
KL – Code for Kerala
13 – Code for Kannur
2009 – Year of issuance
000 – Three zeroes since your number has four digits (2840)
2840 – Number
In the second field, enter the name on your license. For instance, if your license says S/W/D of Ramesh Kumar, you enter Ramesh Kumar.
Tick the checkbox and click on “Get Document”.
STEP 03
On clicking the “Get document” tab, you will be redirected to the home page or the “DASHBOARD” page and a message will be displayed saying “Your document is saved in Issued Documents section.”
You can note that the number of “Issued Documents” has become “2”.
STEP O4
You can search for all the documents you need the application to fetch and repeat the process. The fields you have to fill in will vary as per document. You can see all the fetched documents under the “ISSUED” tab.
