The wave of Aadhaar is sweeping through the entire nation. The government claims that the introduction of the UID system will make life much easier for the common man.
But various incidents across the country suggest just the opposite.
According to a recent report by The New Indian Express, Sajida Begum, 65-year-old leprosy patient from Bengaluru has been deprived of her pension just because she didn’t have an Aadhaar card. The pension of INR 1000 per month was the only source of sustenance for the old lady.
Sajida has lost her fingers and eyesight to the debilitating disease. To add to her woes, the local authorities sent her a letter this August that if she doesn’t get her Aadhaar number linked to her pension then she would stop receiving the pension in the next seven days.
How could she get the pension with the fingerprint and iris scan being mandatory for the biometric verification?
Social media was flooded with the reports of this leprosy patient and help started pouring in from all sides.
Following the reports and the shares on the social media, at the time of writing this article, Sajida Begum received her pension for the month of October. That of the August, September, and November are still to be fought for.
This is the untold story of almost every leprosy patient in India who are struggling to make their ends meet.