Will Maharashtra starve kids over Aadhaar card?

Schoolchildren might be denied basic rights such as their mid-day meal if they do not link their Aadhaar to the government school database, SARAL. Representation pic/AFP

Children can no longer be turned away during admissions for not having an Aadhaar card, but they will soon be denied basic rights such as mid-day meals and scholarships. The Maharashtra government has found a back-door route to make Aadhaar mandatory again for school kids, just months after the Supreme Court ruled that students cannot be denied admissions or any benefits just because they do not hold Aadhaar cards.

Parents, teachers and school administrators had all breathed a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court scrapped the Aadhaar mandate for school and college admissions in September 2018. But a new order issued by the state government on January 19 has put all of them in a dilemma. The order also states that while Aadhaar is not mandatory for admissions, in order for students to avail of facilities like mid-day meals and scholarships, their Aadhaar details should be mandatorily uploaded on the SARAL portal - the state's database on students.

Students may soon be denied mid-day meals and scholarships because of the new order. Representation pic/AFP

What the order says
The order states: 'Aadhar updation for children in the age group of 5 to 15 is important. Concentrated efforts can be taken more for children in Std I and Std X. Even though it is no longer a mandatory document for admissions, regular as well as under RTE, Aadhaar updation on SARAL is necessary for mid-day meal and scholarships. Not only should each child from all schools should have Aadhaar registration done, it should be uploaded on SARAL by schools. State government is distributing new Aadhaar registration machines - two for each taluka, and training sessions are to be held for its use. These machines are expected to reach the talukas by the end of January. After that, all schools should get Aadhaar registration done within 15 days.'

Utter confusion
There is no word on what consequences the schools or students will have to face if they fail to update the Aadhaar details, nor is there any clarity on whether new registrations will at all be possible without the card. With the order asking for Aadhaar registration right from Std I, many fear that schools eventually will start asking for it at the time of Std I admissions as well.

Anil Bornare, president of the Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Parishad, pointed out, "This is adding to the confusion. On one side, Aadhaar mandate for admission has been scrapped and, on the other, if the government is asking for these details to be submitted on SARAL at the entry level [STD I], schools might start asking for it at the time of admissions."

Schools displeased
Aadhaar card updation on the SARAL portal was yet another arduous non-academic task that teachers and schools had been saddled with until the SC scrapped it. School principals were glad they would no longer be held responsible if any child's Aadhaar card was not ready - this had been a point of outrage among educators, who argued that their job was merely to teach. Now, when all schools already have stopped the Aadhaar registration work, the new order has brought the same fears back.

"We have already completed a majority of the task, out of the fear that school principals would be held responsible. Now the cases that are remaining have technical glitches which cannot be solved at the school level anyway, so we will have to direct parents to Aadhaar centres. If the parents don't go, why should the school be held responsible?" questioned the principal of a school in Bandra.

Prashant Redij, spokesperson for the Maharashtra School Principals' Association, said, "We are not against Aadhaar, even if it is a mandate for each child. We only want the officials concerned to do the task and not involve school teachers or principals. But when 90 per cent of the registration work is already done through the earlier mandate, what is the reason for this sudden order?" Another principal of a Jogeshwari school raised more questions. "Has the mandate been issued again only because the state government has bought these new machines?" Dinkar Temkar, joint director of education (primary), was unavailable for comment despite several attempts to contact him.

15 February
Deadline for 100% Aadhaar registration of students

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates