Adilabad: Lack of proper documents to show their dates of birth is proving costly for many illiterate farmers and their families from marginalised sections in the district.
With many errors in the Aadhaar cards, several beneficiaries are considered ineligible with the furnished details of overage or lesser age instead of the exact age for various welfare schemes being implemented by the state and the Central governments. Children and youth are losing their educational and job opportunities due to mistakes in the Aadhaar card.
The families of deceased farmers are now appealing to the state government to take steps to make corrections in the Aadhaar card with a fresh inquiry so that these families can get insurance payout under the Rythu Bima.
The Rythu Bima is a life insurance scheme for the financial security of the family members of deceased farmers being implemented by the state government. The government is providing insurance cover of `5 lakh to the farmers under Rythu Bima.
Even officials have not bothered much about extracting exact details of illiterate applicants while they apply online for Aadhaar card and applicants are unable to provide exact details. Illiterate candidates furnished approximate details relating to the months or years of dates of birth but not the exact date in the applications.
In some cases, the local educated youth or teachers furnish the details of villagers when officials come to their village to collect details. The same is the case when illiterate parents join their children in the government schools.
The mistakes in Aadhaar, ration cards (social security cards) and patta passbooks, ROFR (forest pattas) cause much worry to the illiterate candidates since they are unable to get government welfare schemes. Many illiterate farmers’ dates of birth have no mention in Aadhaar cards and sometimes details of year of birth are mentioned wrongly.
An Adivasi farmer, Mesram Sheku of Saleguda of Adilabad Rural mandal, died in December 18, 2020. Now, his family members are trying to apply for insurance cover under Rythu Bima. Thurpa Bai, wife of Mesram Sheku, said they were told that Sheku was not eligible for Rythu Bima since his date of birth was recorded as just 1961. She said Sheku’s age was four to five years lesser than what was mentioned in the Aadhaar card. The Sheku's age was mentioned as 57 in the ration card that was issued on August 14, 2006.
It is found that many illiterates are facing problems of mismatch of their personal details from one document to another. Now, officials say that correction in the Aadhaar card is not possible despite enough proof after the candidate is dead.
Kudimetha Prakash of Rampur village of Adilabad said correction in the Aadhaar card was possible only with the sufficient proof of ‘factual details’ of PAN card, date of birth certificate and ration card or pattadar passbook, otherwise correction could not be done at Mee Seva centres.
According to officials, the owner of the land must register his land before August 3 and they will consider only Aadhaar details for the age proof of the deceased farmer for the Rythu Bima for the year 2021-22. The deceased farmer must be aged between 18 to 59 years that means he or she should have been born between August 14, 1962 and August 14, 2003 to become eligible to apply for the Rythu Bima. The families of deceased farmers should apply for the scheme before August 11.
