Aadhaar helps reunite Jabalpur family with lost son at Nagpur

NAGPUR: The Damle family had been bringing up 18-year-old Aman as their son, the youngest of three siblings, since he had been found alone and crying at Nagpur railway station 10 years ago. When they tried to get an Aadhaar card for Std X exam, the system refused to accept biometric details of Aman, who is slightly impaired in speech and mental abilities. An investigation revealed he was already registered as Mohd Amir, with his family residing at Jabalpur.
The boy growing up in the Damle family of Naya Nakasha in Pachpaoli was the youngest son of Mohd Ayyub of Jabalpur. Aman alias Amir had gone missing from home around a decade ago. After much emotional turmoil, the Damle family, with Aman’s consent, handed him over to his biological parents at Hanumantaal police station in Jabalpur on June 30.
Aman’s biological parents, who had thought their son had died, sobbed as they hugged the lost child reunited due to Aadhaar card’s unique biometric system, which did not allow a fresh ID to be prepared.
Aman had been rescued by a NGO in 2012 from Nagpur railway station. He had gone to school with his sister but did not return home. No one knows how he ended up at Nagpur.
The Nagpur railway police had shifted the boy to a government shelter home, from where the Damles had brought him to their hostel run through the International Mission of Dr Ambedkar Education Society, Panchasheel Nagar. “As he was unable to adjust at the shelter home and used to cry incessantly, we brought him to our hostel,” said Samarth Damle.
“The boy was partially challenged in speech and mentally too. All we could gather from him was a name sounding like ‘Aman’. So, we started calling him Aman,” said Damle. “My wife Laxmi’s brother took care of him, and we had become his informal guardians. When the school wanted his father’s name, we had give a fictional name, ‘Suresh Dhangare’,” he said.
“We raised Aman as our son. Our two biological children too had accepted him well. My sons planned to help him set up a small business as he struggled with studies,” he said.
Samarth had been trying to get an Aadhaar card made for Aman for the last four years, but the system kept rejecting all attempts. The credit of the reunion goes to Nagpur Aadhaar Seva Kendra centre manager Anil Marathe, who decided to probe why Aman’s Aadhaar kept getting rejected. Marathe, an ex-serviceman, even contacted the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) technical team at Bengaluru, and the regional office at Mumbai, to resolve the ‘biometric issue’.
“I had a doubt his Aadhaar must have been made somewhere, which was causing the biometric problem,” said Marathe. “Finally, the Mumbai office gave us access to the Aadhaar registered with the boy’s biometrics, where his name turned out to be ‘Mohd Amir’, with the address of Jabalpur in MP,” he said.
“The emotional Damles were in denial mode initially, but later accepted the fact,” he said. “I personally got the address verified, and later even the police traced Aman’s missing person complaint,” he said.
The Damles also visited Aman’s home at Jabalpur. His father owns a biryani outlet and a grocery shop. Aman too was keen to join his family, about whom he had faint memories. Laxmi fondly recalls how Aman would call her ‘mummy’. “He still calls me everyday to ask our well-being. We feel happy he is safe,” she said with teary eyes. “He is coming to meet me on my birthday (July 12),” says Laxmi in a voice choked with emotions.