United by Aadhaar: When UID helped reunite a mentally-ill child with his family

A mentally challenged teenager from Panipat in Haryana who had gone missing in 2015 has been reunited with his family thanks to the Aadhaar card. The case happened during an Aadhaar enrolment that happened at a child welfare home when authorities tried taking his biometrics, they found he was already part of the system.

Sanjay Dubey, Coordinator Salaam Baalak Trust told Times of India: “Gaurav was transferred here because Palna takes care of children only up to the age of eight. During routine medical and psychoanalysis tests it was revealed that the child was suffering from ADSP (Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project). And as such he could remember nothing but the names of his parents and himself.”

"During the biometric assertions, the credentials of the boy matched with that of his parents' in Panipat. Following that, his family was called to the national capital leading to the reunion of the boy with his parents," he added. Thanks to Aadhaar, the teenager was reunited with his parents in Haryana’s Panipat. His father Vikas remembered losing Gaurav on a bleak Sunday in 2015 and how they couldn’t find him despite putting out ads, and reporting it to the local police station.

He added:  "Despite several TV, newspaper ads and everything we were not able to find our son. But we never lost hope and now thanks to Aadhaar we got our elder son back." While the debate continues around Aadhaar and its supposed breach of privacy, even the most hardened anti-Aadhaar activist will have to admit that the Unique Identification system definitely has up sides.