Fingerprints leave no impression for this merit holder

BHOPAL: Science and mathematics are no challenge for 15-year-old Nikhil Saraswat; but his fingerprints — or rather the lack of them — are stopping him from appearing in entrance examinations.
The Gwalior boy, who scored 97.6% in Class 10 MP Board, has an extremely rare condition — Adermatoglyphia — which causes a person to have no or faded fingerprints.
This is a cause of trouble for Nikhil as his fingers do not leave imprint on bio-metric machines used for identification during entrance tests.Due to this, he was not allowed to appear in Madhya Pradesh’s Pre-Polytechnic Test (PPT) held on April 15 in Gwalior.
Skin specialist Dr Anurag Tiwari said, “Adermatoglyphia is a developmental abnormality. The pads on fingers and toes are entirely or partially flat. There is an absence of arching or looping on ridges that characterise the fingerprints of human beings. People with this condition are entirely healthy, except they have a slightly reduced number of sweat glands.” He added, “This genetic abnormality is rare, noncurable, and only spreads through family genes.”
Nikhil secured the 8th position in state in MP Class 10 board examination with 100 marks in mathematics, 99 in Sanskrit and Science, 97 marks in Social Science and 93 marks in English.
‘Nikhil wants to pursue engineering’
Nikhil’s father Ramsevak, a teacher, said, “Nikhil is a very good student. He has done well not only in school but also in science and maths Olympiads. He wants to pursue B.Tech and engineering for which he had applied for PPT. When we went to the centre, the officials did not allow him to write the exam because they were unable to verify the fingerprints.”
“Nikhil’s fingerprints are so blurred that his Aadhaar also has 40% of his prints. But, on the day of the PPT exam, the officials were unable to get his finger prints even after several attempts,” said Ramsevak who was in Bhopal on Tuesday with Nikhil for the felicitation ceremony of merit holders at chief minister’s residence.
“The application process of most exams is now online. If my son’s fingerprints are unverifiable every time there is an exam, his future is at risk,” said Ramsevak, adding that they might decide move the high court so that Nikhil can be allowed to write exams without biometric identification. “Some other modern means of identification can be used for Nikhil. We met a lawyer and told him about Nikhil’s case. He has asked us to get a medical examination after which we can put an application in court.”
Nikhil said, “My family is from Sheopur. I shifted to Gwalior for studies. I want to pursue engineering and then become an IAS officer. But, due to my fingerprints I cannot write competitive exams. Is it a good enough reason for not allowing me to take the exam?”
Talking about alternatives to using biometrics for identification, Gwalior collector, Rahul Jain said, “I have not come across such a case. But I will talk to the exam controller as there are many other alternative ways of verification including iris, and facial reading.” The collector said that the government has facial reading technology.
Fingerprint Expert with FSL Bipin Chandra said as of now there is only one way of verifying the fingerprints is manually. “There are certain chemicals which when applied form an impression on a piece of glass, and then we retrieve the prints through it,” he said.