Nagpur: The Federation of Schools Maharashtra (FSM), an umbrella group of private unaided school associations, has accused the education department of leaking Aadhaar data and/or contact details of teachers and parents to political parties. School education minister Vinod Tawde refuted the charges strongly and demanded that FSM should come up with “concrete proof”.

“The allegations are completely false. Let them produce proof of data leak and we will then take action,” Tawde told TOI.

The FSM, which claims to represent about 1,500 schools, has based its allegations on reports of calls received by teachers seeking their opinion about the current government. SC Kedia, convener of FSM, said, “How did contacts of teachers and parents reach these political parties? We believe that it was leaked by the education department as the data is collected mandatorily through their web portal SARAL.”

SARAL stands for Systematic Administrative Reforms for Achievement of Learning by Students, in which schools upload data online. According to FSM, the collected data includes Aadhar card details of trustees, teachers and students. “It also has mobile numbers and postal addresses of students and parents which provides a good demographic break up for any political party,” said Kedia.

Reacting to Tawde’s demand for proof, Kedia said the education minister must not avoid the real issue. “The state government must tell us what safeguards they have for our sensitive data. Which type of servers are storing our details, are they vulnerable to attacks and who are the people with access to the entire list. These questions must first be answered because our privacy is at risk,” said Kedia.

The FSM’s email, a copy of which has been marked to PMO, adds that “Supreme Court has already held that privacy is the fundamental right of every citizen and hence our personal data cannot be shared without our consent”.

So far, only Mumbai and Pune-based schools have reported receiving calls from political parties. Parents or teachers in Nagpur have so far not called in with complaints.

“We have asked parents and teachers to note down the number, date and time of these calls. We will collect information and hand it to the education department, but before that they must clarify on the safety measures being taken,” said Kedia.

State government and FSM are currently locked in a bitter battle over pending RTE dues. A Jalgaon-based FSM member has already taken the state government to court over the issue and matter is currently pending. Across the state, many FSM member schools have either stopped or purposely delayed RTE admissions, as part of a coordinated protest.

