Government form asks kids: Parents’ Aadhaar number and if they are in an ‘unclean occupation’

GURUGRAM: The Haryana government has kicked off a row by circulating an admission form in government and private schools in the state that seeks to know whether students are suffering from genetic disorders or their parents are engaged in any “unclean occupation”.
The form, which has 100 sub-heads, has been given by schools to students across Haryana, including Gurugram, also seeks Aadhaar and PAN numbers, religion, caste, income and bank account details of parents, prompting the opposition Congress party to hit out at the Khattar government.


Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala has accused the state government of “racial and religious profiling” of students through these forms.

“Height of insanity is the kind of pvt info of parents being sought. Calling vocation of parents unclean is absurd,” he tweeted.

However, the Haryana government on Wednesday defended the move, saying in a statement that the form was intended to ensure that every student in every school of Haryana received the full benefit of every scheme of central as well as state government.

Moreover “it’s surprising that parents who admittedly pay tax on time and are not being asked to share their PAN number could object to disclose their annual income when practically all scholarship schemes have an income ceiling”, the government said.

And government sources also told TOI that the state education department had been using the form in government schools for years, but it was being sent to students of private schools as well for the past two years, “without anyone ever reading the fine print”.

Though private schools in Gurugram have made it clear to students that the information is being sought by the state education department, parents are reluctant to share data which they say invades their privacy.

“The recent form released by the Haryana government is too sketchy. Besides, it solicits unnecessary details. Such information invades the privacy of an individual and has little relevance to the child’s admission to a school,” said Santosh Tiwari, whose child studies in Ridge Valley School.

“I was initially shocked to see such a form. Though the school authorities told me the information was being sought by the education department and not the school, I submitted the form after partially filling it up sans bank account details,” said a parent whose daughter studies in Shalom Hills International School.

Vineet Jaiswal, whose student studies in Euro International School, said, “Admission to schools should be purely on merit and not depend on factors like parents occupation and income.”

Aditi Mishra, principal of Delhi Public School, Sector 45, admitted that many parents were not willing to share bank account details.

“Parents in my school don’t want to answer questions on their income and especially unclean occupation. I had asked the authorities to define what is ‘unclean occupation’ and they had no answer. We ask parents to leave this part,” she said.

However, Aparna Erry, principal of DAV School, Sector 14, said, “Some of the fields are not mandatory and can be left out. This form is a data collection to know the head count of the school.”