Goof-ups in IDentity cards rile disabled

Hyderabad: Following three years of wait, the disabled persons in the State finally received their Unique Disability Identity cards (UDID) this week issued by the Central government. However, much to their annoyance, most of the cards contain erroneous details of cardholders.

Complaints started pouring in soon after the disabled got their long-pending UDID cards with wrong mentioning of their names, address, date of birth, SADARAM identity numbers and most importantly, the percentage of disability.

Many of the applicants found that the details which they have provided three years ago, while filling the online application on the website of Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, were not the same that appeared on the UDID cards they had received this week.

I got the card on Monday with the error in my date of birth. There were others who were complaining about error in name, address, date of birth, SADARAM identity numbers and disability percentage. We don't know from where they got the details of the candidates. But one thing is obviously clear that most of the columns of information in UDID cards pertaining to the cardholder are erroneous and off the mark," rued Afroz, president, Telangana Disable Welfare Society. The Central government introduced the UDID cards for the disabled to help them gain government benefits besides ensuring uniformity. The project was rolled on to streamline the tracking of physical and financial progress of beneficiaries at all levels of hierarchy of implementation. However, the veracity of the project seems to differ from its very objective as it appears that the initiative was not grounded in letter and spirit that resulted in follies at the beginning itself.

As per the website of Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the benefits of having UDID cards include that the disabled people need not make multiple copies of documents, maintain and carry them all the time as the card would capture all the necessary details, which could be decoded with the help of a reader. The UDID card will be the single document of identification and verification of the disabled for availing various benefits in future.

As per the website, a total 1,01,61,756 applications were received online for UDID cards from different States, out of which 62,33,470 cards have been generated as on October 12, 2021.