Aadhaar card mandatory for National tournaments, says Wrestling Federation

As recent as last month, 6 wrestlers were handed a ban by the Wrestling Federation of India on grounds of age fraud and fraudulent domicile certificates regarding the states they claimed to represent. To curb this, the WFI has decided to take on a new approach. The WFI has now made the Aadhaar card mandatory for all senior, junior, sub-junior and cadet tournaments. Amidst growing cries over the continued debate between Aadhaar and risks it poses to privacy, the WFI maintains that it considers this implementation a step in the right direction. 'Aadhaar has been made compulsory for all senior, junior and cadet categories in national and state-level wrestling championships to prevent fraudulent activities in the sport,' WFI secretary Vinod Tomar was quoted as saying by

The Times of India. Not only age fraud, this move has been implemented keeping in mind the wide number of complaints against fake domicile certificates for grapplers who illegaly change their state domicile without obtaining a no objection certificate from their parent state. 'This (move) will weed out dishonest wrestlers who forge documents and commit age fraud. It will also prevent players from manufacturing documents to show illegitimate domicile. If anyone wants to play for another state other than his or her state, then that particular player has to obtain an NOC from the parent state,' Vinod Tomar was further quoted.

Also read: Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in search for a foreign coach ahead of 2018 CWG According to him, the practice of publishing fake certificates and documents is continued even after repeated losses just so that the wrestlers can have another shot at competing in the national circuit. The most recent case was that of the 6 junior level wrestlers who were banned after indulging in age fraud. Out of these six, two were representing Chandigarh, one from Haryana, two Delhi and one for Uttar Pradesh. 'Aadhaar will give us the complete data of any wrestler now and we will keep the records. We will know which championship a particular wrestler has competed in and what his or her age at that time was. The records will also show which venue and what tournament a player has competed in. This information will be recorded on the Aadhaar and fraud will be easily caught,' said Tomar.