Street kids to get Aadhaar cards from 5 March
7 Feb 2014 5:54 AM IST
Thanks to the chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Kushal Singh, India’s street children will soon be enrolled in the Aadhaar programme. Her initiative has been welcomed not only by social welfare organisations but also praised in the bureaucratic fraternity.
It was learnt that she had taken the initiative after it was found that street children are facing difficulty in school admissions and in availing other government schemes meant for them due to unavailability of identity proofs. Now with the enrollment in the Aadhaar programme, which will start from 5 March on the occasion of NCPCR’s foundation day, they will be able to get admissions in schools, open bank accounts and avail the benefits of government welfare schemes without any hassles. Speaking to the Millennium Post Singh said, ‘We will hold the first camp to enroll street children in Delhi on our foundation day for the Aadhaar scheme. The enrollment will be done under the banner of ‘Street to School.’ This is a unique initiative and going to happen for the first time in India. This will be beneficial for many street children who want to study but could not due to lack of identity.’
When asked how many street children are there in India who will be covered under the ‘Street to School’ mission, she said, ‘We have some figures but not revealing it now. We are waiting for state’s figure on street children and have already requested all the state governments to send us the number and details of street children so that we can go ahead with the process of providing Aadhaar card to them.’ There is no official statistic on the number of street children in India primarily because of difficulty in obtaining accurate data about them owing to their itinerant nature. However, unconfirmed reports suggest that there are nearly 8-10 lakh street children in India.
Singh said, ‘To get maximum coverage and number of street children, many NGOs and social welfare organisations were also asked to help them in the Aadhaar enrollment. I have already written a letter to the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) and they have accepted our proposal. There will be challenges but we are ready and confident to gain success.’
Earlier, in September 2010, The UIDAI had started issuing Aadhaar cards to the Indians but street children were not included in the schemes due to difficulty in establishing their identity and address. Plans are there to issue Aadhaar cards to children living in orphanages.
It was learnt that she had taken the initiative after it was found that street children are facing difficulty in school admissions and in availing other government schemes meant for them due to unavailability of identity proofs. Now with the enrollment in the Aadhaar programme, which will start from 5 March on the occasion of NCPCR’s foundation day, they will be able to get admissions in schools, open bank accounts and avail the benefits of government welfare schemes without any hassles. Speaking to the Millennium Post Singh said, ‘We will hold the first camp to enroll street children in Delhi on our foundation day for the Aadhaar scheme. The enrollment will be done under the banner of ‘Street to School.’ This is a unique initiative and going to happen for the first time in India. This will be beneficial for many street children who want to study but could not due to lack of identity.’
When asked how many street children are there in India who will be covered under the ‘Street to School’ mission, she said, ‘We have some figures but not revealing it now. We are waiting for state’s figure on street children and have already requested all the state governments to send us the number and details of street children so that we can go ahead with the process of providing Aadhaar card to them.’ There is no official statistic on the number of street children in India primarily because of difficulty in obtaining accurate data about them owing to their itinerant nature. However, unconfirmed reports suggest that there are nearly 8-10 lakh street children in India.
Singh said, ‘To get maximum coverage and number of street children, many NGOs and social welfare organisations were also asked to help them in the Aadhaar enrollment. I have already written a letter to the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) and they have accepted our proposal. There will be challenges but we are ready and confident to gain success.’
Earlier, in September 2010, The UIDAI had started issuing Aadhaar cards to the Indians but street children were not included in the schemes due to difficulty in establishing their identity and address. Plans are there to issue Aadhaar cards to children living in orphanages.
Next Story
