Possession of any ID, including an Aadhaar now, does not guarantee inclusion into any welfare program.
In fact, every welfare program has its particular eligibility criteria. For example, as per central government norms, to get national old age pension of Rs 200 a month from the central government, the elderly are required to produce proof of age of being over 60 years of age, and of belonging to a household living below the poverty line. A widow is required to show a death certificate of her husband. A widow who, say, has an Aadhaar number, but does not have her husband’s death certificate will continue to be excluded from widow pension even now.
Further, even among those who did have these documents, a major source of exclusion – perhaps more than the lack of ID documents – is that the size of social welfare programmes is capped by the government. Even if a person meets the eligibility criteria and subits all the necessary ID documents, they are put on a “waiting list” instead of being included because the government may have already exhausted its target coverage or quota for that particular scheme.
The Centre's contribution per pensioner has remained a meagre Rs 200/month since 2006. For widows and disabled, this has stagnated at Rs 300. In principle, the National Social Assistance Programme or social pension is meant to cover all eligible persons in the below poverty line population, but the freezing of the central allotment has meant that even those eligible cannot get pensions. In the financial year 2015-16, social pensions benefits went to 2.3 crore individuals while the elderly in India constitute about 10 crore, making the coverage only about 25% of what it should be.

The cure, then, is to expand these schemes. What the government is doing instead is to additionally make it mandatory for them to enroll into a biometrics-based identity program to get the welfare benefits they are already eligible for.

Kunti and Surajman receive monthly pensions of Rs 300 each in Sarguja, Chhattisgarh under National Social Assistance Programme. Central government has frozen pension coverage at 25% of what it should be, and not increased its contribution of Rs 200/monthly since 2006.