Kerala: 80-year-old memory-loss patient reunited with family, thanks to Aadhaar
Aadhaar has its fair share of detractors, but had it not been for this document, 80-year-old Bhasi of Kerala would have had to roam around alone for maybe years, helpless and clueless. The Thoonganpara native, suffering from memory-loss, left his house in the morning on May 26 and randomly boarded a bus. No one could find his address, till they checked the Aadhaar database.
Bhasi kept saying he had to get down near 'Hanuman-temple'
On that fateful morning, Bhasi left his home and boarded a KSRTC bus. He bought a ticket to Karamana, but refused to get down when the bus reached there. He simply kept chanting that he had to get down near a 'Hanuman temple,' and carried nothing but some soiled notes. The conductor prodded, but couldn't help. He then called police.
Cops then hit an idea: checking his fingerprints in Aadhaar-database
When cops reached, "(Bhasi) was very weak. His leg (was) swelling," said sub-inspector RS Sreekanth. They tried extracting information from him, but failed. Then they thought of checking whether he was enrolled in Aadhaar. They took him to the nearest center, where his fingerprints were run through the system. "Our guess proved right. He was an Aadhaar card-holder. We got his details from it," said Sreekanth.
Aadhaar has reunited 500 missing children with their families
Police immediately contacted Bhasi's family and even dropped him home in their official vehicle. Bhasi isn't the only one Aadhaar has helped. Last November, UIDAI Chairman Ajay Bhushan said Aadhaar had helped reunite 500 missing children with their families. This generally happens when an abandoned child is brought to an orphanage and enrolled for Aadhaar. If they were previously enrolled, their details show up.
