Chennai: After numerous failed attempts of trying to keep her eyes open for about 30 seconds to be captured by the biometric system and stretching her quivering fingers to give enough pressure, Monika’s (name changed) physical and mental agony being a person with intellectual disability who could not bear the “torture” suffered fits at a special Aadhaar enrollment camp held at Vidya Sagar, an NGO.
About 100 people within five days faced issues while enrolling for Aadhar at the Vidya Sagar camp started on July 31.
Despite one biometric exemption, many individuals with disabilities are unable to cope with the procedures followed in the Aadhaar enrollment process, Persons with Disability (PWD) had said.
“People with neurological disabilities and other disabilities with voluntary movement issues are unable to sit still for the photograph and those with spastic cerebral palsy and many other conditions are unable to stretch their fingers or toes or press it even with light force against the machine,” said Smitha Sadasivan, coordinator, Disability Legislation Unit.
She further added that people with low vision, psychosocial disabilities, intellectual disabilities such as mental retardation, Down syndrome are unable to look into the biometric machine that captures one’s iris. Mainly people with neurological disabilities get triggered and experience seizures during the enrollment process as they get into a new environment and all new strange processes against their routine activities.
The discomfort of PWD even resulted in physical harm to the Aadhaar operator, NGO (Vidya Sagar) staff and volunteers at the special Aadhaar enrollment camp. There were instances when it took two days for the operators to capture the biometrics.
Explaining one of the cases, a volunteer said, “A little boy used to get agitated at the sight of the machines and numerous attempts to make him sit reaped no benefits. Finally, when he was playing, we got his fingerprints.”
The measures members of Vidya Sagar suggested include provision of smart cameras that can capture a picture despite a little movement, enabling Aadhaar enrollment by just any finger/toe print instead of all 4 fingers and door-to-door enrollment for those with severe disabilities.
The coordinator met UIDAI assistant director general D.M. Gajare on Wednesday when he told her that exemption would be given on biometrics and photographs would suffice. He said would work on software modifications.
People with low vision, psychosocial disabilities, intellectual disabilities such as mental retardation, Down syndrome are unable to look into the biometric machine that captures one's iris. Mainly people with neurological disabilities get triggered and experience seizures during the enrollment process as they get into all new strange processes against their routine activities
