On reopening day, Tamil Nadu government schools to hold camps to help student enrol for Aadhaar

CHENNAI: When the schools in Tamil Nadu reopens on June 6 after summer breaks, the children joining in Class 1 and those who are yet to do it will be able to enrol themselves for Aadhaar identification, said School Education Department secretary J Kumaragurubaran.

Getting enrolled is important for government school students, as Aadhaar number is mandatory to obtain various welfare measures, including nutritious noon meal, free laptop, uniforms, textbooks, bus pass, etc. Also, scholarships and financial assistance under various schemes, which are directly transferred to bank accounts, are extended only if the beneficiary student has Aadhaar number.

Earlier in February, the Tamil Nadu government had organised special camps at 37,500 schools to ensure that all government school students had Aadhaar enrolment. By organising these camps in school premises, the students and their parents can avoid queueing up at enrolment centres to go through the cumbersome process of filling out forms, getting demographic and biometric data captured, submitting identity and address proof, and collecting acknowledgement slips

The School Education Department is organising the facility in association with the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot).

Officials had told DT Next that the department has the data on the number of students without Aadhaar, both school-wise and region-wise. “There are certain challenges that students and parents go through in availing Aadhaar card, especially in rural Tamil Nadu. Hence, this initiative will help them effortlessly avail education loans, and scholarships and write entrance exams,” said an official.

The aim is to prevent students from missing out on opportunities due to lack of government documents. “Also, common errors appearing while availing of Aadhaar card such as name and date of birth mismatches can be prevented, as the schools already have students’ data,” added an official.