Starvation death due to lack of aadhaar authentication: Why is govt completely apathetic to the entire situation?

By Aparajita Sharma*
Govt’s drive on making Aadhaar compulsory is excluding millions and killing many. Why is the Government silent? The Right to Education (RTE) Forum highly condemns the tragic death of 11 year old girl in Jharkhand. She was denied of her right to food and eventually died of starvation because her family’s ration card was not seeded with Aadhaar number. The process got further delayed because it got caught in a tech glitch over Aadhaar.
Serious questions are being raised on the government’s drive in making Aaadhar compulsory. Why is this unnecessary hurry which is excluding millions of poor and threatening life of many including women and children who are living on the margins? Several activists and researchers working in the field have warned the govt on several occasion and the govt have carelessly paid no heed and on the contrary acted against the Supreme Court guidelines.
In its haste to enroll all citizens - of which children form a large untapped population - under Aadhar, the central government has issued notifications making Aadhar mandatory for most government schemes. This includes pensions, PDS, maternity benefits and more recently the midday meal scheme. This has led to death of many children due to starvation and hunger across the country. India is one of the countries with the “lowest reduction in hunger” in the last nine years.
The girl in this case, Santoshi Kumari, who lived with her parents at Karimati village of Jaldega block here in Simdega, complained of severe stomach ache and cramps and nobody cared to wait and listen to her. She died the very next day. She died of starvation or because of stark denial of her basic right to food and life.
Despite the Supreme Court Guidelines which have made it clear that beneficiaries cannot be denied access to welfare schemes, Jharkhand like many other states continues to impose Aadhaar on citizens even more stringently. There are severe threats of deleting names from the public distribution system (PDS) list if their ration cards are not linked with their Aadhaar number.

This is a grave concern as the drive making Aaadhaar compulsory is turning out to be extremely inhuman and also indicate serious lack of readiness for the same. Despite reporting of such incidents the government is completely apathetic to the entire situation.

Several ration shops in Jharkhand, Rajasthan and other states have been denying rations to eligible citizens by insisting on biometric authentication linked to Aadhaar instead of accepting people’s ration cards. Such severe gaps couldn’t be allowed for implementing a scheme. It is a criminal act on part of the Government.

From various surveys carried out, it is abundantly clear that the Aadhaar system, with the technology as it stands now, has failed miserably and has resulted in the poor and marginalized people being deprived of their basic entitlements. There are far more effective means of tackling corruption, such as social audits, regular monitoring, a robust grievance redress mechanism, which the government has failed to implement despite being provided for in the various Acts. There is also growing consensus that using fingerprint data for biometric analysis is unreliable in the case of children. Why is this fact being ignored?
Severe discriminatory and inhuman actions like these go against the ethos of democracy where people’s rights are supreme than the policies and schemes. The larger question is who is being served by these policies. It is certainly not the people.
---
*RTE Forum

Comments

Designing the edge, erasing the river: Sabarmati Riverfront and the dissonance between ecology and planning

By Mansee Bal Bhargava, Parth Patel Across India, old black-and-white images of the Sabarmati River are often juxtaposed with vibrant photos of the modern Sabarmati Riverfront. This visual contrast is frequently showcased as a model of development, with the Sabarmati Riverfront serving as a blueprint for over a hundred proposed riverfront projects nationwide. These images are used to forge an implicit public consensus on a singular idea of development—shifting from a messy, evolving relationship between land and water to a rigid, one-time design intervention. The notion of regulating the unregulated has been deeply embedded into public consciousness—especially among city makers, planners, and designers. Urban rivers across India are undergoing a dramatic transformation, not only in terms of their land-water composition but in the very way we understand and define them. Here, we focus on one critical aspect of that transformation: the river’s edge.

Ecological alarm over pumped storage projects in Western Ghats: Policy analyst writes to PM

By A Representative In a detailed letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, energy and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma has raised grave concerns over the escalating approval and construction of Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) across India’s ecologically fragile river valleys. He has warned that these projects, if pursued unchecked, could result in irreparable damage to the country’s riverine ecology, biodiversity hotspots, and forest wealth—particularly in the Western Ghats.

Relevance of historical foot marches like Dandi and Salt march in achieving developmental goals in India

By Bharat Dogra India has a great tradition of organizing foot marches, including some which become historically very important, the most obvious example being the Dandi Salt March under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi which is a very important chapter in the freedom movement of India.

Top civil rights leader announces plan to lead delegation to Pakistan amidst post-war tensions

By A Representative In a significant move, well-known academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey has announced the plan to send a 22-member delegation to Pakistan to engage in dialogue with its government and civil society. The delegation proposed to go to Pakistan under the banner of Socialist Party (India) as a fact-finding mission to help seek solution to continuing tensions between the two countries over the fallout of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Few Bollywood actors possessed Sanjeev Kumar's subtle detachment and sensitivity

By Harsh Thakor On 9th July, we celebrated the 85th birthday of legendary Hindi film actor, Sanjeev Kumar., known as Haribhai Jariwala. Sanjeev Kumar penetrated zones of versatility or acting craft, almost unparalleled in Hindi cinema. He was one one the very few who touched horizons of true genius, transcending regions in acting virtually unexplored. Rarely did any artist get stuck as thickly into the skin of the character. The diversity of expressions in his moves reminded one of the different water colours of a painting. Sanjeev manifested the ventures of an artist to tap the regions unexplored. He simply defied all conventions of Bollywood, making path breaking experiments. His acting had a subtle degree detachment and sensitivity, which few Bollywood actors ever possessed. He may not have possessed the drop dead looks of a Dev Anand, Dharmendra or Sashi Kapoor or the professionalism or star charisma of an Amitabh Bachan, Rajesh Khanna or Shah Rukh Khan. However in pure acting...

Bridge collapse near Vadodara fuels demand for urgent repairs in Amreli

By A Representative The tragic collapse of a bridge near Vadodara, which claimed more than 10 lives, has intensified calls from social workers for immediate repairs to a dilapidated and dangerous bridge on the Amreli-Rajkot highway in Amreli district.

FSSAI defies Supreme Court order on food warning labels, citing 'trade secrets' for withholding vital information

By A Representative India’s food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), is facing strong criticism for deliberately delaying the implementation of crucial warning labels on High Fat, Sugar, and Salt (HFSS) food products. This comes despite a clear Supreme Court order on April 9, 2025, which mandated the completion of the "entire exercise" within three months. Adding to the controversy, the FSSAI is reportedly hiding expert reports and over 14,000 public comments under the pretext of "trade secrets."

Guru Dutt: The melancholy visionary who redefined Indian cinema

By Harsh Thakor* Iconic Indian director and actor Guru Dutt was just 39 years old when he died in 1964, but he left behind a cinematic legacy that continues to resonate. On July 9, the world marks the birth centenary of this cinematic wizard. Guru Dutt, whose name epitomises the golden era of Indian cinema, left an indelible mark with his talents as a director, producer, and actor. He elevated the art of filmmaking to new heights, bringing innovative storytelling to unexplored domains. Like the protagonist of "Pyaasa", true recognition came to Dutt only after his passing. Cinema enthusiasts continue to wonder what more he might have achieved had he lived longer.

Remarks by visiting speaker in Dallas stir controversy; police complaint filed

By A Representative A speech delivered at a Hindu community event in Dallas has sparked criticism and led to a police complaint, after the speaker reportedly called for a boycott of Muslim businesses in the area.

Search This Blog