How Aadhaar has aggravated women’s social problems

Nandan Nilakeni, the creator of the Aadhaar programme, was recently interviewed where he said that Aadhaar is an assertion of identity that has particularly impacted women. Even though women are major stakeholders, they have never been part of the debates and the whole Aadhaar narrative.

Countering his statement, The Wire reports, citing three examples of women whose entire lives have changed and taken a negative course due to the insufficiency of the Aadhaar programme.

The Wire reports on the lives of Rani Raj Gond, Bimla Bai Lodhi and Anjali Kumari.

Rani’s old-age pension, although small, was crucial for her sustenance. The bare minimum that it covered was her medical care, such that it was not too much of a burden on her kin. In the beginning of the last year, however, her pension was stopped.

Two years ago, she was affected with a massive stroke that left her left hand immobile and her fingers numb. She was unable to proceed with biometrics for her Aadhaar. Hence, her identity hangs in the balance along with her pension and medical care. For the last year, Rani has not been receiving medical care.

A widow, Bimla Bai Lodhi, is in her late thirties. She has an acre of non-irrigated land which is very unreliable. She stands in queues every month outside Public Distribution System shops to collect her ration. This March, however, there was a “technical error” and she was not able to collect her ration. Some linking problem has not let her get ration for over three months now. With no information on how to proceed in this regard, she purchases non-subsidised food grains to feed her family, worsening her financial situation.

Anjali Kumari sings out the morning prayers outside a school while she goes to work in some of the houses as a domestic help in the school’s vicinity. She says, “That could have been my school, but it isn’t,” she says.

Not having an Aadhaar card has made her a dropout. She studied till Class 7 before her parents moved to the city, where she lost her Aadhaar card in transit. No school admitted her due to the lack of an Aadhaar card. She laughs and says, “I don’t understand why that document is so important.”

There is no slighter way to suggest that Aadhaar problems are women’s issues too. With the existing saddening gender inequity, the coming up of Aadhaar as a gatekeeper to all public welfare schemes and entitlements has only aggravated women’s problems further.

The latest National Family And Health Survey has indicated that more than half of the women between ages 14-49 are anaemic, only one third of women aged 15 to 49 have completed more than 10 years of education, and about two-thirds of women in this age group report at least one problem in accessing medical care.

Aadhaar has become a burden for maternity entitlements of pregnant and lactating women recently after the introduction of Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojna – the central government’s maternity benefit scheme that excludes more women than it covers.

Gatekeeping such programmes which are only introduced to increase accessibility of facilities is creating so much of an inconvenience to a group that is already very disadvantaged. The government should recognise that it has severe gender incomprehension, and marginalised women are being alienated even worse.