In a first, the country's premier institute AIIMS has given a 12-digit Unique Identification Number (UID) to 89,000 inhabitants of Ballabgarh block near Delhi in order to keep track of health care services being delivered to them.

An initiative of the department of community medicine at AIIMS, this 12-digit useful identification facility was aimed at keeping a tab on proper delivery of all health care projects, including immunization programme, started by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"Our objective is to see that health care is delivered to all. Through this project we try to manage all important health conditions. We also keep tab of births and deaths. Each individual has a 12-digit unique identification number and four our help in our database its alpha numeric 17-digit number," Dr Sanjay Rai, associate professor with the department of community medicine who is posted at Ballabgarh said.

This 12-digit has project area (one digit), Primary health care centre (one digit), village code (two digit), house number(four digit), family number (two digit) and individual number (two digit).

Dr Rai said that they headed for alpha numeric 17-digit UID number as a permanent solution and to keep the demands of changing times.

He said, "Suppose one united family breaks up and people start living in two different houses then the house number changes. What follows is that the flow of the UID breaks. That is why a alpha numeric 17-digit number.

"Even in case of a birth of a new child or the death of someone in the family or the marriage of a girl from one village to another, the UID flow gets effected. Here 17-digit UID will come to rescue".

Dr Rai said, "today we have a database of each and every 89,000 individual of the 28 villages here. Our health care workers visit every house at a interval of 15 days to keep tab of health condition of each individual in each household. We know well who has missed out on an immunization programme and these workers go and remind them about it."