BENGALURU: In a heartwarming turn of events, 21 minor boys residing in a government-run institution in Bengaluru are set to be reunited with their families in various states. The boys include a few who are mentally challenged and others who have speech and hearing impairment.
The catalyst was the Aadhaar card. An attempt to create identity cards for the inmates of Home for Boys, which houses orphans near Lakkasandra, resulted in the stunning discovery of their actual hometowns.
Of 26 boys who were taken to the Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) at Majestic, the necessary details could not be captured for 21 of them, Ashok Lenin, Deputy Director of UIDAI told TNIE.
“Initially, those in charge of the home had brought one boy to our centre for his card. Our staffer, retired Wing Commander G Rajendran who tried to get his biometrics, realised the system was not accepting them as they had already been captured. A quick check of the database revealed the actual origin of the youngster, which no one knew earlier,” he said. The ex-defence employee then urged the authorities of the home to bring all the boys, he added.
A majority of the boys are in the 15-16 age bracket. “Some had been living in the home for a few years and were unable to give their real home address, as they are mentally or physically challenged,” Lenin said.
Data revealed that of the 21 boys, seven were from different parts of Karnataka, three from Bihar, two each from Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, and one each from Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. The boys from Karnataka are from Belagavi, Anekal, Devanahalli, Bengaluru, Chamarajpet and Ballari.