No Aadhaar, No Mid-day Meal stand : Updating one's identity
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 17 2017 -

Aadhaar card may not be proof of citizenship but this has not stopped the Government from making it mandatory for the people to link their Aadhaar number with all important documents such as their bank account, their mobile telephone number, their PAN card, etc.

Now the Government has mandated that any student who fails to submit his or her Aadhaar card will no longer be entitled to the mid-day meal scheme served to children in schools.

The interesting question that arises here is, if Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship then why make it mandatory to link all important personal information or documentation with it ?

One could be to ensure easier identification of the individual.

It is not a proof of citizenship but it is an important identity card for all citizens of the land.

There are debates raging on whether this would lead to compromising with the personal information of the citizens or not, but the Government seems intent on marking each and every citizen of the land and this is what is interesting.

Now it has come to the question of making it compulsory for even school kids to identify themselves with their Aadhaar card so as to avail the mid-day meals served to all school going kids in the country.

It however remains a matter of speculation on when the one line “no Aadhaar, no mid day meal,” stand will come into force for remember not everyone has received their Aadhaar card.

The Government has already set its eyes on December 31, 2017 for all to have their Aadhaar card, and it may be presumed that the one line stand may not come into effect immediately but wait till the time when it is thought that everyone has been covered by the Unique Identification Authority of India.

A uniform identification document for all in the country, that is how Aadhaar may be seen and this could be the reason why the Government has made it mandatory for all school kids to submit their Aadhaar card to avail the mid-day meals.

This will certainly go a long way in checking the sick practices of some schools in submitting the names of non-existent/fake students just to make some easy money on the sly.

This will also check the practise of some school authorities in submitting inflated number of students with an eye on the doles given out for the mid day meal scheme.

Such a measure will certainly impact on the number of students that has been submitted by different school authorities and apart from checking the malpractices this can also help in giving a truer picture on the actual number of children who go to school, all over the country.

This is particularly so in the case of remote villages where proper mechanisms of working out the number of school students may not be present and this will obviously reflect on the literacy rate in a place and the country overall.

However one may raise the question of why the Government has till date not made it mandatory to link one’s Aadhaar with one’s Voter-ID card.

It is a given that Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship but why not link it with the Voter ID card to prove the identity of the voter who will cast his or her vote to decide the course of the next five years.

Why are political parties silent on this and it is here that the understanding of vote bank politics rears its ugly head.