10338 - Street children to get Aadhaar cards, bank accounts - The Hindu

HYDERABAD, August 17, 2016

Street children to get Aadhaar cards, bank accounts

Hyderabad has 28,560 of these marginalised citizens as per a survey in January 2016

Children living on the streets without identity papers are likely to get Aadhaar cards as well as bank accounts soon under the RBI-mandated Jan Dhan Yojana. This was disclosed by charity, Save the Children, during the course of a workshop on ‘Vulnerable children and families of displaced communities’ here on Tuesday.

“Sixty per cent of street children have no identity papers. And if they are displaced people or refugees like the Rohingyas in Hyderabad, the children are scared to disclose their identity. We brought this to the notice of National Child Protection Rights Commission and they are studying the feasibility of giving Aadhar cards,” said Bidisha Pillai of Save the Children.

Census

“Hyderabad has 28,560 street children and a majority of them are in the GHMC’s central zone,” informed Alka Singh of Save the Children, releasing the findings of a census of street children in Hyderabad conducted over five months between September 2015 and January 2016.

The statistics reveal the city is not friendly to its marginalised citizens. “A big chunk of the youngsters in the city are migrants from rural Telangana,” said Ms. Singh. About 78.7 per cent of the street children are from Telangana while 12 per cent are from Andhra Pradesh, according to the census.

“Telangana had a super case of disaster where millions were affected without anyone becoming wiser about it. This year we had a slow onset of disaster due to the drought. And what did the government do? We don’t know. Where are the farmers in digital Talangana? Where are the farmers’ children in digital Telangana?” asked Sajit Menon of Save the Children.

Surprisingly, about 66 per cent of street children work and earn money, while 34 per cent of them pursue education in one form or the other.

School at Balapur

“We realised that among the most vulnerable are the children who are displaced due to conflict.

“Hyderabad has Rohingya refugees and many of their children had not seen a school.

“When we brought this to the notice of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Commissioner, he acted immediately and within 20 days the school started functioning on World Refugee Day on June 20,” informed Ms. Singh.

The school is functional in Balapur where around 100 children spend the day studying and also get a square meal.

The school is run by Save the Children Foundation in tandem with Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

×

10337 - Homeless Children To Get Aadhaar Card, Birth Certificate: Maneka Gandhi - NDTV

Homeless Children To Get Aadhaar Card, Birth Certificate: Maneka Gandhi

Indo-Asian News Service August 17, 2016

Homeless children will now be able to obtain an identity for their future.

Chennai: Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said on Tuesday that homeless children will be given birth certificate and Aadhaar cards.

Speaking at a function organised by Dayaa Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, Gandhi said the Women and Child Development Ministry will start a new initiative for providing birth certificates and Aadhaar cards to homeless children across the country.

She said the initiative will help the homeless children to obtain an identity for their future use to move ahead in life.

Appreciating the NGO’s initiative to set up a citizen council for child safety, Gandhi spoke about the measures taken by the central government for safety, protection and care of children.

She also held regional consultation with the civil society organisations on the draft ‘Trafficking of Persons Bill, 2016’ in which 21 NGOs and the Tamil Nadu government participated.

The NGOs suggested that the time-line for repatriation of trafficked victims should be included in the act itself. Similarly, begging is an important area where trafficking is rampant and should be taken up seriously under the act.

7826 - Aadhaar cards for children - TNN

Aadhaar cards for children

Chittaranjan Tembhekar, TNN | Apr 20, 2015, 09.49PM IST

MUMBAI: Over 1 crore children in the state between 0 to five years of age will be brought under Adhaar identity now. 

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has directed state's school education and women and child welfare departments to employ agencies to bring these children on Aadhaar network within a year's time. 

"Also every year around 24 lakh children are born in the state. UIDAI wants them to be added every year," said deputy director general of UIDAI in Mumbai Ajay Bhushan Pandey while talking to TOI. 

According to Pandey if children beneficiaries of state's various schemes and database about them could be maintained and monitored well if they were brought on Aadhaar link.

5156 - Aadhaar discovers street kids - TELEGRAPH INDIA

Aadhaar discovers street kids

ANANYA SENGUPTA Street children at an event in Mumbai. File picture New Delhi, Feb. 2: An effort has begun to enrol India’s street children in the Aadhaar programme, which will allow them in principle to obtain school admission, open bank accounts and secure government welfare. Some child rights activists, however, fear it will be a “cosmetic endeavour” in the absence of a government rehab programme, since few of these children have money to keep in banks or the resources to study. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairperson Kushal Singh, whose initiative has led to the effort, however, argued that many street children want to study but are stymied by lack of identity proof. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) began issuing Aadhaar cards in September 2010 but street children had so far been overlooked because of the apparent difficulty of establishing their identity and address. Last week, the commission wrote to the UIDAI, which accepted the proposal on Friday. On March 5, the commission will hold its first camp to enrol street children in Delhi for the Aadhaar scheme under a “Street to School” campaign, Singh told The Telegraph. Sources said it could take “months or even years” to issue Aadhaar cards to all of India’s estimated 5 to 8 lakh street children. Singh and her team met UIDAI officials on Friday to discuss the challenges. “Most street children live with their parents or guardians, mostly migrant labourers (in makeshift roadside or construction site camps). So it won’t be too difficult to devise a way to assign them the cards,” she said. Some street children, though, have no guardians and live on railway platforms or near tracks. “As for them, we plan to draft local NGOs and government child welfare committees to introduce them for Aadhaar enrolment. Basically, these will be ‘I know this kid’ type of introductions,” Singh said. If necessary, the activists will help the children get affidavits from gazetted officers that will serve as address and identity proof. Singh said Aadhaar cards would be issued also to children living in orphanages or shelter homes. “Aadhaar cards for street children is a good idea but they will be useless unless these children are given proper protection under the Juvenile Justice Act, which stipulates they be accommodated in shelter homes,” said child rights activist Rajmangal Prasad, a former member of the Delhi government’s child welfare committee. “This will remain a cosmetic endeavour unless the government rehabilitates these children.” The UIDAI has already issued 56 crore Aadhaar cards and hopes to complete its mandate of 60 crore cards “within weeks”. The remaining 61 crore cards are to be issued by the National Population registry, whose progress has been slow. UIDAI sources said they had been thinking of bringing street children under the scheme with the help of NGOs, and had already begun issuing Aadhaar cards to inmates of some shelter homes in Delhi.