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A world lost for youth with no fingerprints

 

A world lost for youth with no fingerprints

Lalit Kumar's hand with no fingerprints (PHOTO: SNS)

The plight of a 27-year-old man who is now jobless is inexplicable. He lost his job because he could not register his attendance. Lalit Kumar (27) was working as data entry operator in the Home Ministry as a contractual employee. After 30 November 2016, biometric attendance became mandatory. Lalit was born with a rare disease called Adermatoglyphia, (a genetic disorder which causes a person to have no fingerprints). It’s an extremely rare disorder which otherwise develops no physical or health-related problems in a person.

Lalit presented a copy of his medical report from a doctor of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital under Delhi government. Lalit said since last year he had been running from pillar to post to get his Aadhaar card but was still awaiting an answer from the UIDAI department.

Joblesss for the last six months, Lalit expressed his despair by pointing out that biometric attendance was compulsory at all the places he had applied. He claimed he finally wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his condition. He mentioned that he was facing a problem for no fault of his. "I have some skin problem on my palm due to which while entering my attendance through biometric attendance system, the system does not recognise my identity. The concerned authorities in MHA suggested that I update my data in UIDAI and that would enable me to join duty. Accordingly, I visited the regional office of UIDAI at Pragati Maidan many times but just got one answer: 'update request is under manual check and updating data may be delayed',” said Lalit Kumar in his letter to the PM.

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Speaking to The Statesman,  Lalit summed up his despair: "With no physical limitation I am being treated worse than any differently-abled person There is a right and option for the disabled but there have been certain cases in my life where due to my problem I suffered during examinations and now I am jobless after 31 December. When the government will make Aadhaar card mandatory for bank accounts, I won't even have a bank account."

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