The government has started investigation into the distribution of Aadhaar card with wrong age to a tribal child in the district. The age wrongly given in his Aadhaar card had landed the child in the sub jail at Manjeri after he was involved in a criminal case.
The government’s IT Mission has begun the inquiry to find out the agency which collected the data from the tribal child and his colony. Four agencies — Akshaya, Keltron, Swati Technologies, and Oriental Bank — were involved in collecting Aadhaar data from the people in Malappuram district.
‘‘We have to first identify which of those agencies had collected the data from the particular child. We ought to prevent recurrence of any such faults,’’ said an IT Mission official.
Special camps
Special camps were held in tribal colonies as part of providing Aadhaar cards to Adivasis under the leadership of the District Collector. The inquiry will find out the document on the basis of which the child’s age was entered in the Aadhaar card.
It was the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) which saved the tribal child from the jail during a routine check. An age determination test conducted at the Government Medical College, Kozhikode, following an order by the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Nilambur, found that the tribal boy was between 18 and 16 years of age.
‘‘This is a clear case of mistaken age. But an error of age in a document like the Aadhaar can destroy the future of a child,’’ said Sameer Machingal, District Child Protection Officer.
It is the age of the accused that determines whether he is worthy of being called a child in conflict with law or an under trial to be sent to a sub jail. ‘‘The nation gives great protection and privilege to children. And no child should lose that privilege because of an error on the part of the officials concerned,’’ Mr. Sameer said.
