CHENNAI: Thousands of teenage ration card holders in Tamil Nadu are at risk of losing access to subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) as outdated Aadhaar biometrics recorded years ago have stalled their e-KYC verification.
According to official sources, most of the affected teenagers are school students aged 13 to 17 from economically disadvantaged families. Their Aadhaar biometrics were recorded five to six years ago when they were under the age of 10 and the system now fails to recognise their fingerprints, official sources said.
Similarly, beneficiaries above the age of 70 are facing verification issues due to faded fingerprints.
Despite multiple extensions of the e-KYC deadline, about 58.41 lakh out of 3.5 crore ration card holders in the state had not completed the process as of April 30, as per a response from the Union government to TNIE under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The centre, in its response, was non-committal on whether non-compliance would lead to the removal of beneficiaries from ration cards, which, in turn, could reduce the rice allocation to the state.
In the meantime, the state’s civil supplies department has issued lists of cards with incomplete e-KYC to fair price shops, whose staff have warned beneficiaries that failure to authenticate Aadhaar could result in the suspension of their cards or removal of unverified members, sources said.
The Aadhaar requirement for school students began informally in 2019, when the state made it mandatory for Class I admissions across all schools. Over the years, even students of Class 2 and above were asked to submit Aadhaar details to access welfare benefits, though there was no formal mandate.
“When the fingerprints of children were first recorded, they were between six and nine years old. Now they’re 11 to 15 and the mismatch is common. We have advised parents to update their children’s Aadhaar details and then visit any nearby ration shop to complete the e-KYC,” a civil supplies official explained “Elderly persons with worn-out fingerprints have been advised to update their iris data,” the official said.
‘Couldn’t complete process despite multiple visits to shops’
The union government launched the e-KYC drive in 2022 to eliminate bogus ration cards and remove the names of deceased members. All NFSA beneficiaries are required to verify their Aadhaar credentials to continue receiving free rice, wheat and ragi from fair price shops.
Tamil Nadu has issued 92.98 lakh Priority Household (PHH) cards and 18.45 lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards, covering about 3.5 crore individuals under NFSA. A few beneficiaries TNIE reached out to said they had visited ration shops multiple times but were unable to complete the biometric verification.
A woman from a village near Walajah in Chennai said her 15-year-old son could not complete the process despite several attempts. “We’ve been receiving our entitlements in Chennai. I got a call from the ration shop asking me to update the details of my children. But the system didn’t recognise their fingerprints. We were asked to visit an Aadhaar Seva Kendra first to update the data before coming back,” she said.
Similarly, a 78-year-old pensioner from Tiruvallur echoed a similar concern. “I received my ration card under the Old Age Pension scheme. I’ve tried thrice to complete e-KYC, but the system keeps failing to verify my fingerprints. The staff told me to update my Aadhaar. They warned that if I don’t, my card might be suspended and even my pension stopped,” he said.
In its RTI response to TNIE on whether beneficiaries who fail to complete e-KYC would be removed from the list, the Union government only said that states have been directed to ensure completion of e-KYC for all remaining cardholders.