Aadhaar exempt for aboriginals

Natives of Andaman and Nicobar do not venture out

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) may be having the toughest job of them all - of bringing into the Aadhaar net the slightly-over 134 crore of population.

Sans doubt, notwithstanding the sheer logistics of the gigantic task that the UIDAI has managed to pull off, with aplomb, there are seemingly small areas where it had to take a microscopic view and decide accordingly.

In isolation

For example, people belonging at least to about half-a-dozen aboriginal tribes in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar live in isolation of each other in their dense forest habitat. Of course, they do not even believe in interacting with ‘outsiders’.

Be it the ‘Negritos’, the ‘Mongoloids’, the ‘Sentinalese’ and the ‘Jarawas’ - who are broadly classified as the ‘Great Andamanese’ and the ‘Great Nicobarese’ - it just does not matter.

They have been exempt from Aadhaar, of their own wish to which the Unique Identification Authority of India has acceded.