Read the veins of the hand to identify the children of India

The Palm Vein technology from Itwillbe and Fujitsu biometrically identifies more than 11 million children who roam the streets of the country

    Millions of people in the world do not have a document that certifies their identity, making them invisible. Millions of homeless children roam the streets becoming the most invisible face of poverty. In India alone, 11 million children are in this situation. In the face of this catastrophe, technology can be used to serve society and help the most disadvantaged.

This is what the Itwillbe organization decided to do, working on the implementation of a biometric identification system with Palm Vein technology developed by Fujitsu. It is a reader of veins in the palm of the hand that can authentically identify anyone, although at the moment the project is reduced to street children in Bangalore (India).

    The system is based on a reader that captures and identifies users by infrared scanning of the veins and their oxygen , through the palm of the hand in just one second. Each pattern is unique and is maintained throughout life. The reflection of the infrared rays emitted illuminate the palm of the hand and are absorbed by the hemoglobin of the blood. In a matter of seconds, the photograph of the veins appears in the system. "The pattern does not change with age, which makes the solution highly reliable in projects with children," explains Arancha Martínez, founder of Itwillbe.

The project called ChildMISS aims to reach the 11 million affected children in the country in the future. It is a work "solidary, reliable, autonomous, portable, multilingual, simple and safe", which has already begun in the NGO Don Bosco to create a correct database of minors and make more efficient the work of social intervention of the centers, according to Ignacio Garicano, director of Corporate Social Responsibility (RSC) of Fujitsu.

Arancha Martínez says she started with it because she "did not settle" with developing traditional cooperation projects. "I always wanted to make a mark in the sector , to do something more useful, that could really make a difference in the way we fight against poverty." Itwillbe is already in negotiations with cooperation agencies, emergencies and those working in defense of Human Rights to introduce this unique technology in the world.

Aspires, as a key objective, to become a reference in the environment of the identification of the most disadvantaged, "of the invisible". "We hope to start new projects in other countries in the hands of new NGOs in 2018," says Martinez. They work to implement this system in the protection of talibés children (children between 4 and 14 years old who have been handed over by their parents to the Marabús, teachers of the schools of Senegal and Guinea Bissau), as well as to minorities in Senegal and Tunisia.

Before being implemented, a pilot project has been carried out in the school of Madrid St. Michael's School with children of 6 and 14 years, with a resounding success to achieve a 100% success in identifying children with this technology.