64 lost kids unite with parents in a year with the help of Aadhaar Card

As part of the campaign, the state child protection committee launched a campaign to get the Aadhaar Card made for all the inmates of homes.

One can well imagine the meaning of tears of joy rolling down the cheeks of a mother having found her son after a five-year-long agonising wait. She was overwhelmed as she hugged the 12-year-old boy trying to come to terms with the quirk of fate. He was lost when he was just seven.

Image used only for representative purpose. (Mint Photo)

Bihar’s child welfare committee members were witnesses to the emotionally charged scene after they went there to unite the mother with her son. The child could not even tell his address or any nearby place due to the tender age when he got separated.

It was made possible using the Aadhaar Card. As part of the campaign, the state child protection committee, under the social welfare directorate of the Bihar government, launched a campaign to get the Aadhaar Card made for all the inmates of homes. This detected those who already had Aadhaar enrolment in their names.

Uniting lost children with their family members is a tough task, but so far, Bihar’s social welfare department has been able to do that not with one or two of them, but 64 children, including seven girls, in the last one year, thanks to technology and Aadhaar number.

Earlier, despite a lot of effort, it was quite difficult to locate the families of the lost children, especially those who strayed at a tender age.

Social welfare director Rajkumar said that all the children kept in the homes were being enrolled for their unique identification and those who already had their Aadhaar enrolment were immediately detected.

“In those cases, we write to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to get the card of the child, which carries their phone number and address,” he said. He informed that from Bhagalpur child care home two of the three children, including one speech and hearing impaired child, were rehabilitated using technology and Aadhaar.

Once the cards arrive in a sealed envelope due to security reasons, they are handed over to the concerned homes, where the cards are opened. “If the phone number is found working, it makes the job easier in locating the families. If it is not working or there is no mobile number, the address is located with the help of child protection units of the concerned area,” said the director.

He said that Aadhaar was turning out to be a big help in locating families of lost children and we are hopeful that in the coming months, a large number of children will reach their homes. “In some cases, the families were emotionally overpowered on seeing their kids back safe after having given up. Some of the children, including special children, united with their families not only in various districts of Bihar but also in West Bengal and Jharkhand, after having spent years at care homes,” he added.

The campaign to ensure the Aadhaar enrolment of every child living in care homes started in 2019 following the Centre’s directive in this regard. The Centre put in place a standard operating procedure (SOP) for state authorities to add all kids in orphanages or childcare homes to the Aadhaar database and Bihar implemented it to reap its benefits.