Residents of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), who are presently employed, have started getting Aadhaar cards.
A number of residents in IMH, who have improved with treatment in the last few years, are working outside the campus, including at the office of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services, a bakery run by the institute’s industrial therapy centre and as housekeeping and security staff.
“Recently, we started the enrolment process to get Aadhaar cards for 28 residents, who have taken up regular jobs. Without Aadhaar, it was difficult to complete the KYC (know your customer) process in banks where their salaries are deposited. As a result, their accounts were difficult to operate. This was one of the main reasons why we started the process for Aadhaar enrolment,” P. Poorna Chandrika, director of IMH, said.
A few days ago, 10 of these residents received the Aadhaar cards. Disability Rights Alliance helped in expediting the process, she said, adding: “We aim to obtain Aadhaar cards for every resident at IMH. This is the first step and will be followed by obtaining the Unique Disability IDs issued by the government. This will provide the homeless mentally ill with an identity and help in rehabilitation efforts.”
She pointed out that in some cases, families that were hesitant to take residents home were unwilling to give the Aadhaar details if they already had one.
During a meeting with the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons department, the need to get Aadhaar for inmates of all homes was pointed out, she said. Following this, the department, in a communication, said officers for the welfare of the differently abled in districts were instructed to collect data on the Aadhaar number of residents of homes for the mentally ill in the light of halfway homes being set up.
Special camps would be organised by the Unique Identification Authority of India and Welfare of Differently Abled Persons department to ensure that each resident was provided with an Aadhaar card in these homes.
