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Delhi government continues to deny food rations to people without Aadhar cards, even though a Supreme Court order expressly prohibits this.
Image credit: Mayank Jain
Feb 26, 2015 · 08:30 am
On the 15th of every month, thousands of slum residents in Sheikh Sarai in Delhi pour out of their tenements and head to the ration shops to pick up their share of subsidised grain. But in recent months, many have been coming back home without their full share.
This isn’t because the supplies in the shop are running thin. Rather, this has to do with the Delhi government’s insistence that people get themselves Aadhar cards, which assign a 12-digit unique identification number to each individual.
Although the Supreme Court in an order in March 2014 ruled that an Aadhar card or number cannot be made mandatory for citizens to avail of any social security service, the state government in Delhi continues to ask for it. Those who do not have Aadhar cards are being denied food rations.
Apart from being a violation of the court order, this has led to a curious trend in the slum at Sheikh Sarai. Families are lining up children, and in some cases, infants, outside Aadhar registration centres. “Even our youngest, five-month old baby has an Aadhar card now,” said Sheela, a matriarch heading a 17-member household of sons, daughter-in-laws and grandchildren.
A temporary fix
Since the Aadhar card is based on biometric data, children younger than five years are technically not ready for the procedure. Their iris and fingerprints aren’t fully formed. They would inevitably need new cards after the age of five.
So why are families desperate to get Aadhar cards for their children?
Until recently, food rations were given collectively to a family. But the National Food Security Act of 2013, popularly known as the Right to Food Act, has replaced family quotas with individual quotas. Under the new law, every member of a family that earns less than Rs 1 lakh a year is entitled to five kilos of rice and wheat a month at Rs 1 or Rs 2 a kilo.
Since Delhi government has linked Aadhar to food rations, it means every member of the family – including the children – need to get unique identification cards before they can qualify for the rations.
Geeta, a housewife from the Sheikh Sarai slum colony, has to feed her four children on the erratic income of her husband, a daily wage labourer who brings in Rs 100 or Rs 150 on a good day. Three of her children were not on the family ration card when the Right to Food Act was passed, so Geeta is unable to get subsidised rations for half the family.
“There is no hope for people like us. They ask us to get an Aadhar card first or get out,” said Geeta, who has been trying to get her three youngest children on the ration card for a year.