NEW DELHI, INDIA: There will be no possibility of choosing your own unique identity number, Unique Identification Authority chairman Nandan Nilekani said here Wednesday.

"There will be no vanity numbers," Nilekani said at an interaction with women journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps.

He said while middle class people already have different identity documents like passports, credit cards and bank accounts, the poor often do not have the same privilege.

"Identity or lack of it is a great divider in Indian society," he said, adding: "Every person should have one and only one number."

The project faces several technical challenges and will also have some "political ramifications" at a later stage, but the roll-out will start in 18 months and six million people would get unique numbers within five years, Nilekani said.

While the unique number will prove that the holder is a resident of India, it would not be a certificate of citizenship, he noted.

It will be the obligation of the service providers like passport or transport department to verify if the applicant with the unique number qualifies for their service, Nilekani added.

Therefore, the number will be distributed at the service provider level, like passport offices, public distribution systems and rural employment guarantee scheme.

He said the proposal was to create a database with biometrics, which would allow authentication by even a mobile phone with a fingerprint reader.

©IANS