MYSURU: Fourteen years after the launch of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), tribals living in remote areas of backward Chamarajanagar district have got their Aadhaar.
The long wait has come to an end as the district administration has reached their doorstep to issue Aadhaar cards that have become mandatory to avail Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's favourite guarantee schemes or to get free PDS or health coverage.
Thanks to Deputy Commissioner Shilpanag for holding a time-bound drive to see that every child or person in Chamarajanagar district gets an Aadhaar card.
Though there are 158 tribal colonies with more than 32,000 population, many elderly people from remote villages used to reach the district office complex requesting an Aadhaar card.
This caught the eyeballs of Deputy Commissioner Shilpanag who managed to get exclusive Aadhaar kits and assigned officials to visit all the haadis, conduct camps and issue the cards at their doorsteps. The drive that launched from August 30, 2023, has covered 61 tribal haadis and has issued 2,874 Aadhaar cards, including 520 new cards, besides 2,454 updated cards.
A team of officials, including health navigators, Tribal Welfare, Food and Civil Supplies and Health staff, are also going door-to-door to see whether they have ration cards, health cards, caste certificates and other benefits from the departments.
"The data is compiled to create a database, so that anyone reaching out to the hospital will be able to produce their Aadhaar card, caste certificate and ration card to get the benefits. To the surprise of many, more than 1,500 tribals are yet to get their Aadhaar cards as they could not go to the district centre and many don't have either scheduled tribe caste certificates," sources said.
"Though the tribal community is getting nutritional food, they are yet to get benefits under various state government programmes. A majority of them are not aware of the programmes. How can we get benefits when we don't have an Aadhaar card that has to be linked to the bank account to get everything," said Bommaiah, a tribal.
The district administration has listed out names of children without Aadhaar card as many don't have birth certificates. They will be given the cards by producing them before the authorities concerned to seek permission.
Rathne, a tribal woman, who could not use the free bus facility under Shakthi programme is the happiest person now as she can make use of the free service by showing her Aadhaar card recently.
"I approached government departments to make use of the economic empowerment and welfare schemes but they insisted on having Aadhaar and ration cards as proof and turned down our pleas, saying that we did not have ration cards," she said.
Tribal officer Manujula said that they are creating a database of all the 8,200 families and will have the details that would be available anytime to help them get the government benefits. She said 37 tribal haadis in Chamarajanagar and Yelandur will be covered, once they get three more health navigators.
She added that they are using teachers and other staff to collect data and wanted to achieve the target fixed by the Deputy Commissioner at the earliest.
DC Shilpanag told TNIE that she wanted to ensure that every household has the necessary documents to see that they make use of all the government benefits.
She said the government has gone to their doorsteps and is conducting regular camps and issuing ration and Aadhaar cards on the spot in villages with better internet connection.
