CHENNAI: Lalitha S holds a bunch of envelopes in her hand. The address written on it, however has a missing line. “Lalitha S, Anderson Road, Ayanavaram, Chennai 600023.”
The pavement dweller, who does not have a door number or a house name, has received tens of couriers over the years. The ration card that she had applied for years ago has never been one of them. “We were told that we won’t get the card because we don’t have a proper address,” she says.
Along with 13 other families, Lalithaa cooks, eats and sleeps on the pavement opposite Ayanavaram Bus Depot. Although they speak a dialect of Telugu, they are unsure of their nativity as the families have lived on the same road for three generations now. “Our voter ID found its way to this platform. We even got our Aadhaar cards here,” she said adding that she had submitted all required documents along with her application for ration card.
Greater disadvantage for migrants: Migrants communities that have permanently settled in the city or its suburbs are at a greater disadvantage of acquiring a ration card, says Vanessa Peter, policy researcher of the Information Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC). “They neither have a ration card in their home town nor here. But their origin makes it hard for them to establish the same,” she said.
A senior official from the Civil Supplies Corporation said the problem could not be solved unless all Aadhaar cards are linked with their ration cards. “Often we face the problem of repetition. People have a card in their home town, and they apply for a new card here,” the official said. Geetha R, an adviser to the Unorganised
Workers’ Federation who helped the families at Ayanavaram apply for the card said, “The pavement dwellers were asked to provide ‘deletion certificate’. But neither these people nor their parents have ever possessed a card. So we submitted affidavits signed by the Notary stating that these people never had a ration card.” “The Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority forwarded their complete application to the Civil Supplies Corporation last February,” she added saying that cards were yet to be issued despite their efforts.
Schemes and Supreme Court directions: Homeless people who mostly fall Below Poverty Line (BPL) are eligible to avail the benefits of Antyodya Anna Yojana (AAY). Once a family has been recognized as eligible for the AAY, they are to be given a unique “Antyodaya Ration Card.”
This card, also called the PDS yellow card, acts as a form of identification, proving that the bearer is authorised to receive the level of rations the card describes. The Supreme Court in 2013 declared that one does not need an Aadhaar card to be beneficiaries of social security schemes.
Around 60 per cent of the homeless are not covered by food schemes or other assistance provided for BPL category of the population due lack of proof of residence, according to the Supreme Court Commissioners’ Eighth Report.
“Only one-fifth of the respondents of the CES study possess ration cards and the rest either have never been issued one, or have it in their village address which cannot be used once they migrate. Others have lost them in their transition from the native houses to the homeless life. Some lose it of they lived in slums earlier and these were demolished without notice,” the report observed.
It further said that under the AAY scheme migrant workers moving with families should be permitted to use their ration cards anywhere in the country. “This should be an automatic process, not requiring additional paper work, because any further bureaucratic interface would result in dangers of corruption and harassment,” the report emphasised.