HRD Ministry to print students' picture, Aadhaar on certificates to curb fraud

In a major move aimed at putting a check on fake certificate and degree business, the government has come out with a 'foolproof' mechanism to control the menace. According to sources, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is mulling to print photographs of students on their passing certificates.

This is not the end as the degrees would be handed over to students only after it has 12-digit Aadhaar number and name of the college. It would be implemented in all central universities and varsities under states would also be asked to follow the same. "It's a fact that despite all the corrective measures to control the fake certificate trade, it's on the rise across the country, which is devaluating our educational institutions. There are several colleges that are not even operational and issuing degrees to those who have not been to any college. The new mechanism has been initiated to put a full stop on all such activities," the source said, adding that it would be implemented from this academic session, which means students who would get their passing certificates in 2019 would have above mentioned details on their degrees.

Explaining about the plan, the source said, "The whole idea is to authenticate a college and student so that employers don't look at them with suspicion. Given that Aadhaar cannot be duplicated, the 12-digit number printed on certificates would be enough to check its authenticity, but government has added other features to make it more secure."

According to University Grant Commission (UGC) report, there are a total of 22 fake universities functioning across the country with Uttar Pradesh at the top having as many as nine such fake institutions and Delhi having six such colleges.

"The idea behind printing name of the college on certificates is to authenticate affiliation of mentioned college with a particular university. There are several colleges claiming their affiliation with some or other recognised universities, so when college name would appear on degrees, it would be cross checked by the varsity prior to issuance of certificates," the source said, adding that it will also help institutions

As fake institutions are not created through legislation, many of them could be registered as societies under the Societies Registration Act with the object of running educational programmes and conferring degrees, the source said, adding that there is fake degree bazaar being run in almost every part of the country, where people are being offered their degrees without having to attend any classes. Among the noted people who have been facing the heat of fake degrees include former HRD Minister Smriti Irani, her former deputy Ramshankar Katheria and Jitender Singh Tomar, Delhi's former Law & Justice Minister. The cases of Bihar's topper scam has hit the headlines which paved the way to overhauling of the certificate issuing mechanism.