In a protest held today, the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation in Hyderabad, has said that a faulty biometric system and the use of Aadhaar for attendance has led to 21,841 students getting detained. These students were unable to take their exams and their careers were in jeopardy, the statement added. (If you can read Telugu, please help us translate the whole statement. Email: trisha@medianama.com.)

AIDSO pointed out that the biometric attendance system was introduced “in the name of discipline and attendance regularization” and that even students attending classes regularly reflected a 65% attendance in the system and had been detained.

Roll back #Aadhaar biometric attendance system. Allow the detained 21,481 polytechnic students to write the exams. pic.twitter.com/CFe3zR3cdJ — Srinivas Kodali (@digitaldutta) March 11, 2019

The students’ body said that the malfunction of biometric machines, servers, fingerprint scanners, and lack of awareness on the usage of these machines caused the detention of students. The body has demanded that these students be allowed to write their exams, and warned of uproar from the students.

20,000 detained over biometric attendance system

Last week, over 20,000 polytechnic students were detained by the Telangana State Board of Technical Education and Training for insufficient attendance, reported the Times of India. The students were not permitted from appearing for their 2nd and 4th semester exams scheduled for March-April 2019.

However, the management of polytechnic colleges have argued that faulty biometric devices were to blame, adding that the biometric attendance system (BAS) was implemented in haste and that there was lack of awareness in the system, the report added. One polytechnic college claimed that it waited a month and a half for technical support staff to come and explain the system, and complained of issues with the server.

The commissioner of Collegiate and Technical Education Navin Mittal denied any technical glitches in the biometric machines and said all glitches were removed in the previous semester.

Also read: Aadhaar operator’s biometrics were stolen and misused repeatedly: report

Check our Aadhaar and biometrics coverage.

Edit: The headline has been updated to reflect the story more appropriately.