NEW DELHI: In a first, a team from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) visited a beneficiary without fingers at her home on the day of the complaint and got the Aadhaar number generated. The swift action by the Central agency was made possible on the instructions of a Union Minister.
Learning that a person in Kerala was unable to enrol for Aadhaar as she did not have fingers, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar directed the UIDAI staff to take immediate steps to ensure enrolment of the beneficiary.
A team from UIDAI visited Josymol P Jose at her home in Kumarakom, Kottayam district, the same day and got her the Aadhaar number, which she was devoid of for many years.
Her mother thanked the authorities for their support and assistance, and said that with the help of Aadhaar, her daughter will now be able to easily avail of various benefits and services, including Social Security Pension and Kaivalya, a rehabilitation scheme for divyangjan.
Standard advisory has been sent to all Aadhaar Service Kendras giving instructions that Aadhaar should be issued to people like Ms Josymol P Jose or to others having blurred fingerprints or similar disability, by taking alternative biometrics, Chandrasekhar said. The provisions were inbuilt in the system for a long time now but were not being availed by the citizens.
In line with the Government’s commitment to ensure inclusion for digitally- enabled access to benefits and services, UIDAI has made special provision in its regulations and has issued Biometric Exception Enrolment Guidelines, laying down the procedure for enrolling persons who have missing fingers; the biometrics of whose fingers cannot be captured due to any reason or the biometrics of whose irises or both fingers and irises cannot be captured due to any reason.
A person who is eligible for Aadhaar but unable to provide fingerprints may enrol using only iris scan. Similarly, an eligible person whose irises cannot be captured due to any reason may enrol using only her fingerprints. Further, an eligible person who is unable to provide both finger and iris biometrics may enrol without submitting any of the two.
