Guwahati: A differently-abled woman in Assam was reunited with her family earlier this month after she went missing from her home for several weeks.

The woman, who has speech and hearing impairments, is a resident of Khanamukh village in Assam’s Sonitpur district.

The Assam Police found her wandering homeless in Sonapur New Market in Kamrup district, nearly 165 kilometers from her home.

The police referred her to the centrally sponsored Sakhi One Stop Centre, an NGO that offers psychosocial counselling and temporary shelter to women.

When communication could not be established through writing and sign language, she was shown pictures and she pointed to an Aadhaar card.

When the Guwahati Regional Office of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was contacted, it offered its support and advised that the woman may submit her fingerprint biometrics for a possible Aadhaar enrolment.

On comparison of her fingerprints, her existing Aadhaar biometrics matched, and her residential address was found from her Aadhaar details.

The woman was then reunited with her family.

Aadhaar enrolment helps not only in ease of living and better service delivery but can also help persons separated from their families to reconnect. Therefore, UIDAI has always been encouraging that children be enrolled at the earliest, and their biometrics be enrolled once they attain the age of five years and updated upon attainment of 15 years of age, said the Ministry of Electronics & IT on the incident.

Such enrolment and update are free of charge and can be done at all Aadhaar enrolment and update centres across the country, it added.