Challenges and Limitations

o For Birth certificate: Chief Registrar of Births/ sub-registrar- Birth in Delhi, Patna;

Chief Municipal Health Officer-Kolkata. Tehsildar at Municipal Corporation-Delhi;

Health & Medical Officer-GHMC Hyderabad o For Caste Certificates: Officials at the office of District Magistrate; District Welfare

Officer-Kolkata; Village Revenue Officer(VRO)-Hyderabad; Revenue Department official and Tehsildar-SSLM Bangalore o For “Casteless”/ Orphan certificates: BBMP officials in Bangalore; Sakala

Administration-Bangalore

ii) Action Research Method that included, - Selection of a sub sample of 3-4 YAs from the main sample in each city and 1 or 2 Home team of each sample city who can apply for identity documents through Offline/ Online Modes - Documentation of application processes, Time taken, Amount of money spent, challenges/bottlenecks faced etc. FGDs with young adults and Team members were arranged either at the Rainbow Homes or state office premises in sample states. A semi-structured questionnaire guided the FGDs to keep the discussion focused and gather information on the challenges faced by them while applying for identity documents either through home team or through their parents. All the interviews were audio taped with prior consent from the children as well as home team members and later transcribed verbatim, which formed the database for this study. The study neither attempted to consolidate qualitative information nor aimed to provide any comparative analysis of the laid down processes in study states. Instead, the study aimed to provide detailed guideline on possible ways in accessing the major legal identification documents which might be followed by the organization in future.

Ethical considerations

Alike all other research studies undertaken by Rainbow Homes Program, this study also followed the organization’s ethical protocols to maintain confidentiality, privacy and dignity of the Rainbow’s young adults as well as stakeholders involved in the study. Before taking the Rainbow’s young adults into focused group discussions, the objectives of the study were clearly explained by both the research team as well as the state team members and the information provided by them has been used after due consent of the young adults. Similarly, data from the representatives of NGOs studies for this research were collected after clearly explaining the objectives and taking due consent about usage of information provided by them.