‘THE FOCUS ON AADHAARLINKING IN NREGA IS A DIVERSIONARY TACTIC, IGNORING THE REAL PROBLEMS SUCH AS DIFFICULTY IN GETTING WORK, DELAYED WAGES AND LOW WAGES.’
(left) with her children in Jharkhand. Her NREGA job card was cancelled during the Aadhaar seeding drive.
But exclusion is not caused by machine failures alone. Thirty-year-old Anita, living in a slum in south Delhi has spent three years trying to get ration for her autistic son, Nitin. The nine-year-old child did not have an Aadhaar card when Anita applied.
She is unable to take up a job as Nitin cannot be left alone. The family depends on the erratic income of her husband who works as a labourer and monthly subsidised food grains. Anita made three trips to an Aadhaar enrolment centre before the child could give his biometrics.
“He used to get scared of the machine and run away. But after all that effort when the Aadhaar card came, I was told his name still cannot be added to the ration card as the quota was full,” says Anita as she tries to hold Nitin in her lap. She was also unable to avail disability benefits for Nitin due to lack of Aadhaar.
Several such stories came to light when the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan took the government to court in February this year against Aadhaar being made mandatory for ration.
The Delhi High Court in September directed the government to start providing ration to Anita’s children, along with 40 other affected families.
A relieved Anita asks, “Gareeb ka khana ek card ki wajah se lekar sarkar ko kya fayda hua?” (How has the government benefited by taking food from a poor person because of a card?)
with her sons at the Lal Gumbad slum in south Delhi. She spent three years trying to get ration for her autistic son, Nitin (in her arms), who did not have an Aadhaar.