Over 19 lakh students without Aadhaar card in State

Mumbai: A report by the state education department on the student registration process known as Systematic Administrative Reforms for Achieving and Learning by Students (SARAL) for government, aided and non-aided schools has revealed that nearly 59 lakh students are facing issues related to Aadhaar card.

The registration of students with their Aadhaar number is mandatory for all government, aided, and unaided schools. The registration process is carried out by school teachers every year. However, a senior official from the education department said this year’s process has been completed recently, however, the information that has come out is alarming.

“Aadhaar card is now mandatory for availing benefits like midday meal, text books, school uniforms and many more. From January 2023, students, who are registered on the portal with Aadhaar card can avail midday meal scheme. During the verification of the data, we found that close to 19.5 lakh students do not have an Aadhaar card, while 40 lakh have errors in their personal details,” said a senior official from the education department.

He said there is a possibility of these students being deprived of these benefits due to the Aadhaar-related issues. There are 2,33,13,762 students studying in these schools from Classes 1 to 12.

Pune district topped the list of districts without Aadhaar. It was revealed that around 3,09,671 students in the district do not have an Aadhaar card and there are errors in details of 3,13,489 students. Thane district was in the second position with 2,32,153 students not having Aadhaar and around 2,45,268 having errors in Aadhaar details.

Whereas, in Mumbai, 1,51,178 students of schools attached to the deputy director of education do not have Aadhaar, while 1,03,225 have Aadhaar with errors. About 1,00,080 students from schools attached with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) do not have Aadhaar and 2,22,841 have errors in details.

Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson, Maharashtra State Principals’ Federation, said it will also affect the appointment of teachers. “If teachers are appointed based on the number of students in the future, the number of teachers may decrease,” he said.

Ganpule blamed those handling Aadhaar card services, saying there are several errors in the names of students and parents, date of birth, address and other personal information.

“We have urged the government to update the Aadhaar data by granting special authority to regional executives of the areas,” he said.

Sharad Gosavi, Director of Education, was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, the education department has issued a circular on November 27 to address Aadhaar enrollment and loopholes.

According to the circular, teachers have been given a deadline till December 3 to make Aadhaar available to the students not having the unique identification card. Students who have found errors in their information have been given a deadline till December 10. Students with invalid Aadhaar cards or those who have not taken the card can update their data or obtain Aadhaar by December 20.