UIDAI deactivates Aadhaar of 1.2 crore deceased people

NEW DELHI: The Unique Identity Authority of India has so far deactivated nearly 1.2 crore Aadhaar of deceased persons to prevent misuse of the 12-digit identity proof.

The UIDAI has done this by sourcing records of nearly 1.6 crore deaths from the Civil Registration System (CRS) of 24 states and UTs through the Registrar General of India."Following thorough validation, approximately 1.17 crore Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated. A similar exercise is ongoing in non-CRS states/UTs, with 6.7 lakh death records received and deactivation in progress," an official release said.

It added that UIDAI has started a new service 'Reporting of Death of a Family Member' on the myAadhaar portal for the 24 CRS states and UTs. "The family member, after authenticating himself/ herself, is required to provide Aadhaar number and death registration number along with other demographic details of the deceased person on the portal. After due process of validation of the information submitted by the family member, further action is taken for the deactivation, or otherwise, of the Aadhaar number of the deceased person," the statement said.

UIDAI is also exploring the possibility of sourcing death records from banks and other Aadhaar ecosystem entities maintaining such information.

It is taking the support of state governments in identifying deceased Aadhaar number holders. As a pilot, demographic details of Aadhaar number holders aged over 100 years are being shared with state governments to verify whether the Aadhaar number holder is alive. Upon receipt of such verification report, necessary validation will be carried out before deactivating such Aadhaar number, electronics and IT ministry said.