Findings in the entire process of action research: from applying till receiving the legal identity documents for sample YAs

Specifically, it aimed to apply for identity documents through Offline/ Online Modes; document the application process; officials met and places visited during the process; amount of money spent in the process and bottlenecks faced by the team and young adults.

FINDINGS IN THE ENTIRE PROCESS OF ACTION RESEARCH: FROM APPLYING TILL RECEIVING THE LEGAL IDENTITY DOCUMENTS FOR SAMPLE YOUNG ADULTS

- In Bangalore, accessing caste certificates for two girls were difficult as few corrections were required in their Aadhar cards. Repeated visits to

Bangalore One Centre were required because every time the team and young adults visited at

Bangalore One Centre; the officials told them to come next day stating that server is down. After visiting for 3 consecutive days, the girls could get the corrections like change of mobile number and change in address, on payment of Rs. 50 for each card. It took one month to get the printed card from cyber center against payment of Rs.75.

- With corrected Aadhar Card, these two YAs applied for caste certificates at Nadakechari, Bangalore, along with supporting documents such as, study certificate and letter from organization mentioning details of the children and castes. For each certificate, Rs.25 were paid and received acknowledgement slip against each application. Within one and half month, both of the YAs received certificates.

- On the other hand, Caste certificate for another YA in the sample for action research in

Bangalore got rejected on the ground of insufficient documental proof. The documents asked by the officials were, Aadhar card of the children, death certificate of the parents (since the boy is Orphan), caste certificate of any paternal blood relative. Document such as maternal uncle’s caste certificate was not accepted by the officials and hence the application for this boy got rejected.

- In Delhi, three YAs were chosen to apply for birth and domicile certificates, since they were not eligible to apply for caste certificate. However, major challenge faced in the whole exercise was to ensure identical entries of applicant child in all

Caste Certificate of one YA, Bangalore

required and relevant documents. Applications for two YAs got rejected on the ground such as, mismatch of parent’s names in different documents and lack of continual residence proof for at least last 3 years.

- Two of the sample YAs in Delhi applied for Birth Certificates to the Registrar at MCD on payment of Rs.35 along with supporting documents such as, letter from organization as address proof, CWC declaration, Bonafide Certificates as age proof and Aadhar card of the children. Since the home staff in Delhi built good rapport with Tehsildar and Additional

District Magistrate, they could access Birth Certificates easily within a month. Another

YA’s application for Birth Certificate got delayed due to delay in receiving CWC’s declaration letter since the imposition of country wide lockdown in the wake of COVID 19.

- In Hyderabad, three YAs were chosen for action research to apply for birth certificate, caste certificate and domicile certificates. Two orphan girls did not have any documental proof to apply for caste certificate because the relatives were not ready to provide their certificates as supporting documents.

Hence, the staff applied for the orphan certificates to get benefits of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled

Tribes. As per the reservation order for

Orphan/destitute children in Residential Institutions of Tribal Welfare, Social Welfare, B.C. Welfare,

Minorities Welfare and A.P. Residential Educational

Institutional Society [G.O.Ms.No.34, WD, CW & DW (DW) Department, Dated: 27.09-2008], Telangana

Government instructed the department for extension of the benefits of scholarships and reimbursement of fees etc., at par with Scheduled Caste students to orphans whose caste status is not known, duly treating them as casteless.

Orphan Certificate of one YA, Hyderabad

- As per the “Community and Date of Birth Certificate” relating to Scheduled Castes /

Backward Classes under Section 3 (1) of Act 16 of 1993 (Form IIIA- Annexed to

G.O.Ms.No.5, Scheduled Caste Development (POA.A2) Department, dated 08.08.2014), these two girls received Community and Death of Birth certificate mentioning their orphan status as “belongs to Orphan & Destitute Children (BCA)” and the date of birth.

- For another boy in the sample, caste certificates could not be accessed and hence, the team accessed “Community and Death of Birth certificate” for the boy that mentioned his caste identity as well as date of birth.

- However, the team could not apply for original Birth Certificates of any of the YAs in the sample. As per the officials in GHMC, children without birth records can appeal to the

Health Officer of CHC nearby the Home to conduct a medical test of age and provide medical certificate which can be furnished as valid supporting document. However, application letters from the Organization providing details of the children and their duration in Rainbow Homes did not help as the Health Officers denied to accept the application. As an alternative the staff tried applying for “Non-Availability of Certificate for Birth” for all the sample children which are still underway.

- In Kolkata, all three children selected for the exercise did not have any basic documents such as PAN and Aadhar card which are required for applying other major legal identity documents. Two of them received PAN and Aadhar cards but application for other certificates got delayed due to lockdown announcement in the country and hence are underway.

- In Patna, three children selected for action research received caste certificates and residence certificates from Block Development Offices paying Rs.100 for both certificates per child. However, applications for birth certificates for these children goy delayed with announcement of Lockdown and hence are still underway.

Caste Certificate of one YA, Patna