Never Thought of Proving Citizenship After Years

RAM Sevak Paswan is a worried man.

- RAMASHANKAR

A resident of Malti Bedaulia village under Ujiarpur assembly constituency in Samastipur district, Paswan has no document to prove his citizenship. He only has the voter ID, MNREGA job card, Aadhaar card, and Ayushman health card issued by the authorities.

Paswan has no land of his own to claim for the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana to build a pucca house. He owns a 'jhopdi' (hut) erected on the land provided by his 'malik' (landowner) for whom he works as a daily wager. "I never thought the day would come when I would have to prove my citizenship, decades after my birth," he told this reporter.

His wife, Shanti Devi, engaged in household work, intervenes: "We, both husband and wife, don't know how to read and write. We are illiterate and don't have birth certificates.