Will someone address our problems please?

If you thought having either electricity bill or rent agreement or MTNL phone bill would suffice as address proof for your child’s nursery admission, you are mistaken.

If you thought having either electricity bill or rent agreement or MTNL phone bill would suffice as address proof for your child’s nursery admission, you are mistaken.

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Though most schools accept either one of them as address proof, some schools are accepting only selective documents such as voter identification card, passport and any government accommodation proof.

Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan is accepting only voter card, passport and any government accommodation proof. “This is to ensure the documents submitted are authentic and cannot be tampered with,” said Sujata Maleyvar, admission incharge of the school.

Such a criteria means many parents cannot apply here and those who have, had to forego points given for proximity.

Deepika Shah (name changed), a resident of Safdarjung Enclave who picked up a form for daughter from the school said, “I thought I will give my MTNL phone bills and electricity bills as address proof but the form asked for passport and voter I-card only. Both the proofs had my in-laws’ address in Pitampura. So I will lose out on points given to proximity.”

Shah said when she tried to explain that her daughter will lose out on points if she gives Pitampura as her address, they said she should not apply.

Rohini resident S. Gupta faced a similar problem. “I wanted to apply to Bal Bharti Pitampura but they are only accepting voter I-card, passport or receipt of the last tax return filed as residential proof. I stay in a rented flat and have neither of these.”

Gupta applied to Apeejay School, Pitampura, which has a similar criteria. “Unlike Bal Bharti, they had not mentioned the criteria before hand. When I was filling the form online, I learnt about it. I spent Rs 400 to buy the prospectus and now I don’t even stand a chance.”

Tagore International, Vasant Vihar is also only accepting voter I-card, passport and driving licence as residential proof.
The school, that is allocating points for parents’ educational qualification, has even asked for all the certificates of parents starting from Class 10.

“To gain points, some parents fake residential address in telephone bills and rent agreement, so we are accepting documents which are authentic,” said principal Madhulika Sen.

“Parents produce fake certificates from universities we have not even heard of. To check these incidents we are ask the parents to produce as many certificates they have,” she added.