Children rescued from trafficking, child labour must be provided Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: In order to provide them with an identity, children's homes have been told to provide Aadhaar cards to kids rescued from trafficking, child labourers, orphans and missing children.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been monitoring that every child living in children's home in the national Capital and other states are enrolled in Aadhaar.

According to NCPCR, children's home have been told to take care of the children properly.

''We have seen that Aadhaar cards have reunited many children with their families. That's why we want the rescued children to be enrolled, so that their chances of getting reunited can increase.

"The process has been started. Aadhaar can be helpful for the child in future," said an NCPCR official.

The main purpose is to give children an identity and enrolment will be done with the address of the particular children home where a child is currently staying.

Kids who have been reported missing and are living in the children's home will also be provided Aadhaar cards.

The Commission has also focused on opening bank accounts for such children living in the Capital and other states.

The main reason behind this move is to ensure that if a child – having an Aadhaar identity – is reported missing, rescuers can reach the place where the enrolment was done with the help of the child's fingerprints, and from there try to reunite him or her with the family.

"Sometimes, there are chances that a child rescued from human trafficking or child labour can again get trafficked. If they are rescued a second time, through Aadhaar, it will be easy for rescuers to ascertain their identity," said an official.

Yashwant Jain, an NCPCR member, stated that they have taken several steps for the welfare of children.

Recently, a meeting was held with stakeholders from different states, in order to know what states are doing for their children.

"We have been focusing on the issue of missing children and have asked states to give the numbers of missing children of other states living there, so that they can be reunited," said Jain.

Sources stated that in their respective replies to the Commission, Chattisgarh,

Uttarakhand and Punjab claimed that more than 30 children, who are natives of Delhi, have been found to be living in childcare institutions in their states.