KARIMNAGAR: At 23, and in the final weeks of her pregnancy, Ubidi Rekha has been moving from one hospital to another in Karimnagar, seeking a place to give birth. Each visit has ended the same way: she is asked for an Aadhaar card she does not have, and sent away.
Rekha belongs to the Beda Budaga Jangam nomadic community. Her life, like that of many from Ramakrishna Colony village in Thimmapur mandal, has been shaped by migration. From childhood, her family travelled across states in search of daily-wage work. She was born while they were away from their native village. Her birth was never registered.
That single omission has followed her into adulthood. Without a birth record, she could not obtain Aadhaar. Without Aadhaar, she has struggled to access welfare schemes, routine healthcare and, now, a safe delivery.
In recent weeks, as her pregnancy advanced, Rekha approached government hospitals, including the Karimnagar Mother and Child Hospital. According to her, she was told that admission for delivery would require Aadhaar identification. Private hospitals were not an option; her family cannot afford them.
Officials deny that treatment is refused on medical grounds. District General Hospital superintendent Dr G Veera Reddy said Aadhaar was sought for identification, and that patients without it are treated as “unknown persons” and reported to the police outpost, but not denied care. He added that if any issues arise, they should be brought to his notice.
On the ground, however, the gap between policy and practice remains. For Rekha, each referral and refusal has meant another anxious day closer to delivery, without clarity on where she will give birth.
“If I don’t have an Aadhaar card, can I not become a mother?” she asks.
Local BJP leader Sugurthi Jagadeeshwara Chary attempted to intervene. He helped obtain a residence certificate from the gram panchayat, but technical issues meant the Aadhaar portal did not accept Rekha’s details. The application stalled.
Chary said Rekha’s case reflects a wider problem. Many women and children from nomadic communities, he said, remain outside formal records because of home births, migration and lack of documentation. As a result, children face obstacles in education, and families are excluded from welfare schemes meant for them.
Meanwhile, for the nomadic community, the question is not about a missing document, but about a system that is beyond the reach of those who live outside fixed addresses and official registers.