Jaipur: Those living with HIV will now have to submit their Aadhaar card numbers to Rajasthan State AIDS Control Society (RSACS). The move is, however, being seen as a ‘ridiculous’ one by social activists as they see it as an infringement of privacy of people living with HIV.When a 45-year-old HIV patient reached Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre at Sawai Man Singh Hospital to get medicines, the healthcare staff asked her to submit Aadhaar card’s photocopy. “They asked me if I have Aadhaar card and that I should submit its photocopy,” the patient who is taking medicine for HIV for over 10 years, said.The RSACS has sent messages to all its ART centres, which provide medicines to people with HIV/AIDS across the state, to collect Aadhaar from beneficiaries.“Other departments are also linking social benefit schemes with Aadhaar, so we have also decided to link it. But, we have not made it compulsory for getting medicines. If a person does not have Aadhaar, he/she will continue to get medicines. We will not stop providing them medicines,” said Dr S S Chauhan, director, RSACS.In the state, there are 23 ART centres that provide testing and treatment facilities to 55,000 odd people living with HIV.Officials said that Aadhaar will help in keeping a track on beneficiaries (people living with HIV), who go missing during treatment. Also, through Aadhaar, department will ensure that a particular beneficiary is not registered at different ART centres. They will generate a whole database online, which will have their Aadhaar number. If a person goes to an ART for HIV testing, the online software through Aadhaar will detect automatically if he is already registered at some other ART.Reacting on it, social activists are apprehensive that this may increase risk of revealing identity of people living with HIV/AIDS.“HIV is a severe privacy issue. But it has been seen in the past that your Aadhaar is compromised at many places. There are instances of it being stolen. The question arises that how the state government will keep such database safe,” said activist Nikhil Dey.Dey said, “Once it’s leaked, how they (those who get it) will use it. There is a stigma attached to HIV, so it is ridiculous to collect Aadhaar from those who are already marginalised. If they made it mandatory, there are chances of exclusion of those who do not have Aadhaar from getting benefits of government schemes.”Social activists termed the step as “ridiculous”. Collecting Aadhaar from all people living with HIV/AIDS is quite challenging at a time when such people living with HIV/AIDS registered at ART do not share even their original name and address to ensure their original identity is not revealed to anyone, even at ART centres.