Kerala: Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar resolves Aadhaar issue for woman missing fingers; check details

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has taken swift action to address the issue faced by a woman in Kerala who was unable to enroll for Aadhaar as she lost his fingers. Following the minister's directive, a team from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) visited Ms. Josymol P Jose at her home in Kumarakam, Kottayam District, and successfully generated her Aadhaar number on the same day.

Her mother thanked the authorities and said that her daughter can now easily access various benefits and services, including Social Security Pension and the Kaivalya rehabilitation scheme for people with disabilities, with the Aadhar card.

Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Standard advisory has been sent to all Aadhaar Service Kendras giving instructions that Aadhaar should be issued to people like Ms Josymol P Jose or others having blurred fingerprints or similar disability, by taking alternate biometrics.” 

The UIDAI has special provisions in its regulations, allowing enrollment for those with missing fingers or irises, and has issued guidelines for the same since August 1, 2014. Under these guidelines, eligible individuals who cannot provide fingerprints may enroll using only iris scans, and vice versa. If both fingerprints and irises cannot be captured, individuals can still enroll by providing other necessary information, and the Supervisor at the Aadhaar enrollment center can validate the exceptional enrollment.

For such persons, under the Biometric Exception Enrolment Guidelines, the name, gender, address and date/year of birth are to be captured along with the available biometrics while highlighting the missing ones in the enrolment software, a photograph is to be taken in the manner specified in the Guidelines to highlight the unavailability of finger(s) or iris(es) or both and the Supervisor of the Aadhaar enrolment center is to validate such enrolment as an exceptional enrolment. Thus, every eligible person who undergoes the enrolment process by submitting the required information may be issued an Aadhaar number, irrespective of any inability to provide biometrics.

The UIDAI enrolls approximately one thousand persons daily. Nearly 29 lakh individuals who faced challenges such as missing fingers or an inability to provide finger or iris biometrics have been successfully issued Aadhaar numbers till now.

The UIDAI conducted an inquiry in the case of Ms. Josymol, where her Aadhar number was not issued during her earlier enrollment attempt. It was discovered that the issue arose because the Aadhaar enrollment operator failed to follow the prescribed exceptional enrollment procedure.