Much has been said about Aadhaar! Go to market, institutions, offices, fields, Banks, hospitals and you won’t skip the day without talking about Aadhaar.
While there is no denying that in a country like India, there is a need for identification that people can create easily and use nationwide, the Aadhaar card project goes way beyond that, and in the process, messes up the basics as well.
Aadhaar serves as a unique identifier for Indian citizens and residents. It was introduced by the UPA government in 2010, with the intentions of making subsidy and benefits deliverance more effective and eliminates leakages in the process. Aadhaar has been ever prevalent in the news ever since.
The process of Aadhaar enrolment reaches Kiphire District in the end part of 2011. This enrolment of Aadhaar started without any proper instruction, its importance & purposes due to which many of the citizens have either their name or age incorrectly enrolled in Aadhaar. There have been even instances like another person captured biometric in place of his friend or for some family members.
During its first round, most of the resident were not even given their acknowledgment slip citing power issue/ink etc..and even among those issued some were not at all clear for downloading. Those were the days even mobile facilities were very poor, and most of the villagers don’t use mobiles. Only few could provide their mobile numbers during enrolment process and that too is BSNL. But since BSNL started to offer its service from bad to worse, almost all started using other private telecom services.
As per the Supreme Court use of Aadhaar card is voluntary and that nobody will be deprived of benefit for lack of it. On the other hand without Aadhaar it is impossible to do anything.
What is increasingly evident as a project that will profit specific entities is being forced on citizens who wish to avail of their rights as citizens. Attempts to tie UID identification with everything are increasing. The idea of government subsidies is being replaced by citizens buying at market prices and being reimbursed by the government into their “Aadhaar linked” bank accounts. In other words, spend more on food and fuel, or give us your biometric data. Several instances of schools requiring Aadhaar card details of students have come to light, which is probably a violation of the Right To Education act, since refusing education to children for any reason is punishable under the RTE.
One fine morning I happened to meet one student with his parents crying on his way to school, I asked what’s the matter then his dad replied he feels he is rejected because all his friend are applying for scholarship but he is not applying and the reason is he don’t have his Aadhaar card. So I console him, its okey Aadhaar enrolment is coming soon and your submission for online scholarship is extended so be happy. I feel really pity on him.
When the Aadhaar is mandatory for any scheme, then the enrolment agency should make convenient and available for the citizens to get enrolled as and when needed. As per the UIDAI guidelines new Aadhaar enrolment is free and should be convenient for every resident and Hassel free. But to avail this free enrolment, rural villagers has to spend from Rs. 1000-Rs. 2000/- to get Aadhaar enrollment/update as he/she has to travel from village to reach h.q. Aadhhar enrolment for Kiphire District has been very poor, some of the enrolled resident are found to be rejected/no information data etc.. After the first round of its unsuccessful enrolment, another group came in the last part of 2014 which was continued till first part of 2015. And that is the last time heard about Aadhaar in Kiphire. Now the resident has to travel from Kiphire to Kohima/Dimapur for Aadhaar enrolment which is 300 and above Km with pathetic road condition and then enrolled/update for Rs 200-250 per enrolment/update, that means the economically backward people has to spend from Rs 4000- Rs 5000 for Aadhaar free enrolment.
If it is to be mandatory for a citizen then the Aadhaar centre should be set up atleast in the entire administrative circle, if not all the Villages. But not even in the District H.q. for Kiphire.
Why is it very difficult to get enrolled in Aadhaar? It came to a situation like, for Aadhaar I am willing to do anything…we can understand that for the fear of enrolling illegal immigrants and illegal practices government has been issuing various directives and orders. But, enrolment cannot be made without verifying his/her valid documents by the administrative officer/appointed as verifier and unless the documents are issued by administration one cannot enroll. And if at all it is an issue, let the agency be accommodated in the respective DC’s office. Do the physical verification and let them enroll/update. But making different issues, citing because of this and that, enrolment/update Aadhaar for Kiphirians is still awaiting. The District Administration, Kiphire on their part has been initiating the matter on priority but may be due to some technical issues from higher ups things might not have been materialised. My sincere appeal to our State Government is that let the interested VLE’s CSC, who has required documents and experienced in the field to enroll Aadhaar for its citizen. The CSC e-governance India Ltd which has signed MOU with UIDAI and around 36% of successful Aadhaar enrolment in the country has been carried out by the CSCs but its meaning less for CSC’s in Nagaland. When any VLE is enrolling the resident as per the guidelines provided by UIDAI why it is the Government hampering its business. People working under CSC as VLE are educated unemployed who are trying to earn for their livelihood without depending on Govt. job. If the Government under their supervision has approved CSC in Nagaland to enroll like in any other state then that will be the only successful implementing agency in Nagaland because Nagaland alone has around 150 plus VLEs covering almost all the rural areas. And with the co-operation and support from the Government, CSC’s in the rest of the state provides maximum services to its citizens be it Aadhaar enrolment or any other Government to Citizen Services.
Horiba Sangtam
Kiphire Town
