A Bangladeshi family has no fingerprints due to a rare genetic condition, which has affected only small number of people in the world.
Apu is a member of the Sarkar family who has no fingerprints. He lives in northern district of Rajshahi and works as a medical assistant.
Moreover, having no fingerprints has caused problem for Sarkar’s family as in 2008 Bangladesh introduced national identity cards which required thumb print, after several attempts Apu’s father, Amal Sarkar finally received his card with ‘no fingerprint’ stamp on it.
The fingerprints became mandatory to attain the driving license and the passport in 2010. Although Amal was able to obtain the passport after several attempts but he could never acquire the driving license. “I paid the fee, passed the exam, but they did not issue a licence because I couldn’t provide fingerprint,” he said.
Furthermore, in order to buy SIM card for mobile phone fingerprint is necessary and for this reason all of his male family members use SIM issued under the name of Apu’s mother.
Still, they haven’t received the driving license but the Bangladeshi government has provided Amal and Apu national identity card, the biometric data will be comprised of retina scan and facial recognition.
Amal spent a major part of his life sans big trouble, he said, nevertheless he felt sorry for his children. He said that he had no control over something that he had inherited.
Apu thinks he should approach a court to announce a verdict for his special condition so that he does not have to explain every now and then to people.
The rare condition of Apu’s family is called Adermatoglyphia. It became widely known when a Swiss dermatologist Peter Itin was contacted by a woman in 2007, who faced trouble in entering the US and there were no records of her fingerprints found by custom officers.
The woman’s family also had the same flat finger pads condition.
“Isolated cases are very rare, and no more than a few families are documented,” Prof Itin told in an interview.
However, Apu Sarkar and his family hopes that they would get relief from all the hurdles they suffer due to no fingerprints. Apu desires to receive passport and travel outside the Bangladesh.
