Aadhaar affecting access to PDS, complains Delhi's citizenry in a Jan Sunwai

-Press Release from Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan

The Delhi Rozi Roti AdhikarAbhiyan today held a Jan Sunnwai on the problems being faced by people in Delhi while accessing their PDS entitlements under the Natonal Food Security Act (NFSA). The NFSA provides for priority ration cards for 42% of Delhi’s population. Households with priority ration cards are eligible to receive 5kgs of foodgrains per person per month at subsidised prices. Although Delhi was one of the first states to start implementation of the NFSA, there are still a number of people struggling to get ration cards. Even those who have got ration cards are unable to access the entitlements due to them due to a number of problems. More than 200 people, mostly women, from all districts of Delhi came to the Jan Sunwai to share their experiences in accessing rations.

 

One of the major issues that came up was that of people getting ration cards with only partial details. In a number of cases, names of children have been left out of the card as they do not have a UID number or their number has not been verified by the UID database. Although there have been repeated Supreme Court orders stating that having a UID number cannot be mandatory to receive any government benefits, the Delhi government continues to insist on Aadhar for each member of the household. One of the government officials present stated that children of 3 months of age or above can be enrolled under UID, while SC orders clearly specify that biometric information of children below 5 years shall not be recorded.

As a result of this misinformation some members, particularly children, are left out of the ration cards and households are getting lower quantities of grain then they are otherwise entitled to.

Saira in Sunlight Colony said that there are nine members in her family but only four names have been included in the ration card, because the others don’t have aadhar numbers. So they get only 20 kgs in place of the 45kgs they should be getting. Seema who has four children says that her ration card has the names of only her husband, herself and her eldest son while three children have been left out due to lack of aadhar number. While biometrics for children under five years cannot be recorded, due to the clamour for aadhar numbers for getting names included in ration cards the UIDAI is now also enrolling young children. In case of Yasmin, when she went to get her child’s name enrolled forAadhar, instead of recording fingerprints of her child the person at the centre recorded her fingerprints. Similarly, due to some of the criteria in the guidelines of the Delhi government households which are poor and used to get rations earlier as they had BPL cards are now being left out. In particular, those living in category E colonies stated that because of the blanket criteria excluding all households in A to E colonies, theyare getting left out. “Hum tho 40 saal se yahinpehain; achaanakhamey E category bolkenikaldiyagaya. Humnethonahin bola kihame E category banao, hamarathogaaonhai”; said Chandravati from Savitri Nagar.

Many issue related to FPSs were also raised. Madhu complained that the ration shop in her area opens only once a week. Others stated that their ration shops has been shifted too far and they are spending about Rs 100-150 on each trip to the ration shop.

Vimla, a widow from Jagdamba Camp Basti, broke into tears while narrating her problems in getting a new ration card. She is the head of her household and has to look after a family of four. Before NFSA she had a BPL card but it got cancelled because she failed to get an Aadhar card, despite having the pre-requisite documents.  

Resham Devi, made multiple trips to the ration shop to get her ration because the point of the sale device was not working during electricity cuts, which occur too often in her area. People’s problems were further aggravated in the absence of a clearly defined grievance redress mechanism. Kailash from Bawana reported that when he went to the ADM with his complaint and he found that the ADM is not aware about his new responsibilities and did not know of his jurisdiction.

 

Experts and civil society representatives including Harsh Mander, Special Commissioner to the Supreme Court (on Right to Food); UshaRamanathan (Human Rights Lawyer), Kavita Srivastava, Convenor of the National Right to Food Campaign, BirajPatnaik Principal Adviser to Commissioners to the Supreme Court Annie Raja, National Federation of Indian Women; Anjali Bhardwaj, Right to Food activist and convenor, National Campaign for People’s Right to Information attended the Jan Sunwai.

 

Shri. SS Ghonkrokta, Special Commssioner, Food and Consumer Affairs Department, Government of Delhi was also present along with a number of officials of the Food Department. He assured the people present that the department would look into the issues raised and along with the community try to resolve them. The Delhi Rozi Roti AdhikarAbhiyanbased on the Jun Sunwai will present a report to the Department and looks forward to action being taken on these.

For further details contact:

Amrita: 9810273984
Anjali: 9910009819
Dipa: 9650434777

 

Please check below the photograph of poor quality foodgrains distributed at Delhi’s ration shops

Please click here to access the letter written by Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan to the Chief Minister of Delhi.