Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi present a unique identification card to a tribal woman in Tembhali village near Mumbai on Wednesday. The first to get the card was Rajana Sonawane. Her UID number, 782474317884, will remain her identity proof throughout her life. “I thank Soniaji for selecting me to be India’s first Aadhaar card recipient,” a beaming Rajana said after receiving the card at the UID rollout function here. “Aadhaar card is the aadhar (support) of my life.... Wherever I go it will come in handy,” she said. “The card will be useful at the ration shop and for getting employment,” Rajana said, flaunting the card having the slogan “Aadhaar — common man’s right”.

Tembhali, Nandurbar, Sept. 29: Porter Arvind Sonawane finally got the nation’s mostly keenly awaited government card but wondered if the ID would be a passport to a life less burdensome in this Maharashtra backwater of landless tribals.

The 20-year-old’s village became India’s first to receive the cards as the biometric Unique Identification (UID) number system was launched this morning by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.

“I told her (Sonia) the people in Tembhali have to go to (neighbouring) Gujarat for work. We should get work in our own village. This (UID) scheme should be able to provide us education, housing, and jobs,” said Sonawane, among the few who could speak to the Big Two during their short visit to this hamlet of 1,800 people.

The Class V dropout’s words were a pointer to the darkness beneath the national spotlight on Tembhali as the launch pad for the UID card, christened Aadhar (meaning support), and the facelift the village got. “I told her (Sonia) that all this (new roads and other facilities) has been done because of her visit. After she left, they (the authorities) would forget about us. She heard me out and said this would not happen,” Sonawane said.

Addressing a rally later, the Congress chief held up the project as something that “will help realise Rajiv Gandhi’s dream of 21st century and inclusive growth”. “It’s a historic moment that a small place has become country’s first Aadhar village. Tembhali will lead the country.”

Prime Minister Singh didn’t forget to tie the launch to the aam aadmi, the Congress’s mascot. “Nowhere in the world technology has been used in such a big way. I hope every citizen will get this number very soon,” he said, congratulating project chief Nandan Nilekani for rolling out the scheme in 16 months.

Though jobs were not promised, as Sonawane would have liked, assurances flowed about easier access to other basics. “The poor did not have any identity proof. Due to this, they could not open bank accounts or get ration cards. They could not avail of welfare programmes and many times, these benefits were pocketed by others,” Singh said. Around 1,200 people got such cards, 10 of them from the Prime Minister and Sonia on the dais.

Reactions to the ID were mixed. Day labourer Bhiru Mali, who got her card from Sonia, said later: “Soniaji said the card would provide me identification and would improve our lives. But nobody has explained us how this will benefit us,” said the 20-year-old.

But Arman Qureshi, 51, a farm labourer who supports a family of 15 with daily earnings of Rs 50, felt life would be easier. “I am illiterate. Yeh jeevan ka aadhar hoga, jeevan palat jayega, (the card will be my support, life will change).”