Aadhaar card issuing body, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has deactivated more than 2.5 million deceased persons to prevent misuse of the national identity card, PTI news agency reported on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, citing Electronics and IT Minister Jitin Prasada.
In a written reply to the Union Parliament on Wednesday, the minister said the central government has launched Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric identification system, which includes nearly 134 million active holders.
Prasada said the cleanup effort is aimed at preserving the accuracy and integrity of the country’s Aadhaar database.
“As part of a nationwide clean-up effort to maintain the continued accuracy and integrity of the Aadhaar database, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has deactivated more than 2.5 million Aadhaar deceased persons till date,” Jitin Prasada was quoted as saying by the news agency.
What happens to someone’s Aadhaar after death?
In his reply, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada said that in the event of an Aadhaar cardholder’s death, it is important for the authority to deactivate the number in an effort to prevent any potential identity theft or fraud.
“In case of death of a person, it is imperative that his Aadhaar number is deactivated to avoid potential identity fraud or unauthorized use of such Aadhaar number for availing social benefits,” Prasada was quoted as saying by the news agency.
The Minister explained that several measures have been taken to reduce the risk of identity fraud by providing biometric locking and unlocking functions to prevent unauthorized authentication attempts.
Prasada also said that Aadhaar has “facial authentication” which has been deployed with “aliveness detection feature” to prevent forgery and ensure physical presence of the holder during transactions.
New Aadhaar App
Mint had earlier reported that UIDAI introduced a new Aadhaar mobile application which was officially launched on Thursday, January 29, 2026.
The app provides several different features from the existing Aadhaar app, giving users more control over their personal data, streamlining authentication and verification, while simplifying commonly used services such as updating profile details.
The new Aadhaar app allows users to share only selected personal information without exposing the entire Aadhaar card, addressing the privacy and security concerns of holders.
Along with this, another big change is that holders will now be able to update the mobile number linked to their Aadhaar directly through the app.
