Woman allegedly died of starvation after family was denied ration over Aadhaar

Bareilly: A woman died allegedly due to starvation as the ration shop denied providing them the required amount of grains when the family didn’t present their Aadhar.

The deceased, Shakina Ashfaq, 50, was starving when she died at her home in Bareilly. Her family alleges she had not eaten for five days.

The state government is investigating whether the family was denied their monthly quota of cheaper food-grain because Shakina, who was paralysed, could not be present at the ration shop for her fingerprint authentication for Aadhaar.

The Yogi Adityanath government says its initial inquiries suggest Shakina died of an illness, not starvation. 

“My wife died because of hunger. She was very ill. We used to take her there in a rickshaw. This time she was very ill. We begged the Kotedar (ration shop owner), but he said he would not give anything without the biometrics,” said Mohd Ishaq, Shakina’s husband. 

The family is entitled to receive 35 kgs of subsidised wheat, rice and sugar each month under the Antyodaya scheme.

However, the Government is on a look out for the actual cause of death and denied the allegations against them for not offering the family their required amount of grains as per the Antyodaya scheme. They further said “we found out through the newspapers that she had an Antyodaya card. We are trying to find out the exact cause of the death. There is no provision of the government that people will be denied rations because of an Aadhaar card. We have alternative systems in place. If the person in whose name the Antyodaya card is cannot go, then there is a provision for other relatives to be given ration cards,” Ms Tripathi said.

Sources in the local administration also question the starvation allegation because they say Shakina had about Rs. 4,000 in her bank account. However, they have no answer to the question of why the ration shop insisted on Aadhaar biometrics to provide their share of food.