Beginning next week, Uttarakhand to create Aadhaar cards for madrasa students

The process beginning next week will cover 27,000 students and is expected to be completed by March 31

The school education department will now make Aadhaar cards mandatory for over 27,000 students of madarsas in Uttarakhand

The government schools and other boards will be covered this year. There are over 17 lakh students enrolled with the government schools. (File Photo)

The process beginning next week will be completed by March 31.The school education department floated a tender and a franchise was finalised. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has set a March 31 deadline to complete the process. Last year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had issued orders to all states to ensure Aadhaar identification of students for availing the midday meal school.

After the Centre made it mandatory for schools to register Aadhaar numbers of students, teachers and staff, the direction was followed last year in private schools. The government schools and other boards will be covered this year. There are over 17 lakh students enrolled with the government schools.

The department has constituted teams in each block of all 13 districts of Uttarakhand to facilitate seeding of madrasa students in the Aadhaar database. “We will cover students of government schools first and thereafter, will make Aadhaar cards of students of madarsas and anganwadis,” director general, school education, Alok Shekhar Tiwari, who has additional charge of Uttarakhand Minorities Commission, said.

Uttarakhand has 297 madarsas in Uttarakhand of which only one in Roorkee receives government aid. The remaining are running on charity. All these madarsas come under the Uttarakhand Madarsa Education Board.

Before the constitution of the madarsa education board, a few madarsas were recognized by the education department for primary education under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Later, these madarsas took recognition from the board. “Our teachers and staff are prepared for the exercise. We will ensure that no students is left out,” Uttarakhand Madarsa Education Board deputy registrat Akhlaq Ahmad Ansari said.

In November last, the school education department had decided to tie up with NGOs to track students who dropped out, and link them to Aadhaar numbers. The decision to conduct a survey of the dropouts followed after differences cropped out in the figures of the department and the national census.