For most of us, getting an Aadhar card is like putting the final arrow in our quiver of official documents. For women who have been rescued from brothels and rehabilitated, orphans who have found their way to homes far removed from their origins and the mentally destitute—it’s a portal to legitimacy for a life that’s beyond mere existence.
In a path-breaking initiative, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) recently held a special Aadhar camp for women who had lost their pasts, for orphaned and abandoned children and for destitutes diagnosed with psychiatric problems. Thrilled at the prospect of getting an Aadhar Card and some form of legitimate citizenship at last, close to 500 women and children with the help of 10 NGOs came to the camp at Perambur in Chennai. “Just doing the registration and biometrics alone took us a long time, so we will have to come back another day,” said one of the officials.
An Aadhar will change their lives in small and simple ways. Amelia’s greatest dream has been to buy herself a bike. Like most other girls in their early 20’s, it’s a normal enough desire—one that she can well afford after having saved every extra scrap of money she has earned over the past three years. But that ‘bike’ dream has remained hopelessly out of reach. Why? Because she had no proof of identity that she needs to produce while buying any automobile.Sold into prostitution, before her eventual rescue and rehabilitation in a protection home in Chennai, today she and hundreds of other trafficked women are one step closer to breaking that shackle.
A chance meeting with a member of the Planning Commission turned into a lobbying campaign for the Executive Secretary of the Madras Christian Council for Social Service Isabel Richardson. “From passports to bank accounts to something as small as a driver’s license these women and children are often turned down because they do not have any identity proof. That is why we decided to push to get them Aadhar cards,” she said. Surprisingly, they wangled a ‘yes’ from the government and got to work with vetting and clearing candidates fast.
Getting the Aadhar card will really boost the job prospects of some of these young girls, including a few who have had their documents burnt and destroyed by their handlers. “I had earlier worked at a large hotel in Bengaluru and now I am working at a similar property in Chennai. In the hospitality sector there are plenty of opportunities in the Middle East. But I haven’t even been able to think of it because I don’t have a passport,” said Priya, for whom several attempts to procure a passport have gone abegging. “When there is no proof of their birth or education or a lack of a permanent address (barring their home), most departments refuse to help. Now all of that will be easy enough to do and these girls will really be able to shine,” added Richardson. All the women who have been married after rehabilitation will also be able to apply for welfare schemes after attaining the cards, she added. Handing out the slips of confirmation Joint Director of Tamil Nadu State Social Welfare Board P Elango shared in detail about the importance of identity card. The Aadhar camp was appreciated as an idea to be propagated by the Union Minister of Women and Child Empowerment Maneka Gandhi. She paid a visit to rescue homes in Chennai as part of their Ujjwala scheme to rehabilitate and repatriate these rescued women.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Daniel Thimmayya
Quelle/Source: The New Indian Express, 05.04.2015
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