The Government of Haryana has made it mandatory for parents of school going children to provide information that can be used to profile children (and their parents). A sample letter sent to parents of school children through the schools makes it clear that the information being seeked is not for the school records, but for the Government of Haryana. The form provided in the link asks detailed information of students, including information based on caste and whether parents are in an "unclean occupation". While the form does not mark an Aadhaar number as mandatory, the name field is mandatory and is "Name (as on Aadhaar)". Other information requested includes the professions, Aadhaar numbers and office addresses of parents, their income, tax paying status, PAN number, names of siblings studying in the same school and their registration number. The field for religion is mandatory and can be only one of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain, Sikh, Parsi or "Buddist". Question 36 asks "Whether Parents engaged in 'Unclean Occupation'?" Other personal information requested includes hobbies and achievements. In true post-Aadhaar fashion, there is no consent requested to use this information in a database. MediaNama's take Information of this nature can be used to profile children (and thus their families) on the basis of religion, caste and class. This data can be segmented and used to target children in a multitude of ways, ranging from the benign identification for government benefits to election campaigning. With elections coming up, this is a legitimate concern, as…
