5 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
‘Never thought of proving citizenship after years'
PATNA: Ram Sevak Paswan is a worried man. A resident of Malti Bedaulia village under Ujiarpur assembly constituency in Samastipur district, Paswan has no document to prove his citizenship. He only has the voter ID, MNREGA job card, Aadhaar card, and Ayushman health card issued by the authorities.
Paswan has no land of his own to claim for the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojna to build a pucca house. He owns a 'jhopdi' (hut) erected on the land provided by his 'malik' (landowner) for whom he works as a daily wager. 'I never thought the day would come when I would have to prove my citizenship, decades after my birth,' he told this reporter.
His wife, Shanti Devi, engaged in household work, intervenes: 'We, both husband and wife, don't know how to read and write. We are illiterate and don't have birth certificates. How will we prove that we are citizens of this country? It's the government's job to provide us with documents.'
Paswan has a query: 'When Aadhar card is required for opening a bank account, why is it not a valid document to prove citizenship? After all, we got the Aadhar card after running from pillar to post. It is required for admission to government schools. Why is it not a valid document for citizenship?'
None of the IDs he has figure in the list of 11 documents required for the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.
