The Rural litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RlEK) founder Avadhash Kaushal has opined that making the Aadhaar card mandatory will result in problems especially for senior citizens and people involved in manual jobs including members of the Van Gujjar community.
Kaushal said that telecom companies are repeatedly sending messages to all consumers to get their numbers linked with Aadhaar, though there is a notification from Finance ministry stating that senior citizens, the sick and ailing people should not be asked to come to the stores/ telecom outlets, instead of which the company should send its employees to get this process completed at their residence.
Banks and other such service providers too are sending similar messages to the customers/clients.
He said that government functionaries and politicians do not understand the fact that as age advances the finger prints wear off, some times change and get blurred. Similarly for the people involved in manual jobs, including members of the Van Gujjar community too face the same problem.
The worst hit are the number of people suffering from leprosy. Even to buy a sim card for the mobile phone, Aadhaar card is needed. The senior citizens needing the mobile facilities are facing a bigger problem.
He further said that the prime minister is claiming repeatedly that at airports too the entry will soon be made through biometrics/thumb impression. “This will not solve the problem but create a even bigger one”, said Kaushal.