Efforts on to get Aadhaar ID for inmates of Kovai Corporation night shelter

To initiate the process, they were photographed and their iris was scanned at the Corporation’s West Zone office on December 7. Aadhaar card is a number that serves as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident in India and satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI, can enroll for Aadhaar. The enrolment is free of cost and needs to be done once voluntarily (it is not mandatory).  This card will be very useful to the inmates who either were lost or were abandoned by their families and were rescued from the city’s streets a few months ago. They were staying in the night shelter maintained by Eera Nenjam , an NGO, and efforts were taken to get them voters identity cards but it could not be done at the last moment due to technical snag in the official machinery.

“We wanted to get them some identity to show that they are also citizens of the country. They don’t have such identity proof now as they were from the streets. They will need Aadhaar for availing a host of benefits from the State and Union Governments,” managing trustee of the NGO P Mahendiran said. When the corporation was approached, the NGO was asked to get a certificate from a gazette officer and a letter from the NGO stating that the persons who needed Aadhaar were staying there. After these formalities were completed their pictures were taken on Wednesday. The persons included four persons from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Manipur. Mahendiran said that effort will be taken to help them get other benefits such as Old Age Pension also.