India plans to enable deactivation of dead persons’ Aadhaar numbers

It will soon be possible to deactivate the Aadhaar biometrics-based digital ID numbers of the deceased in India once a legal framework being worked upon is concluded, Mint reports.

The goal of the legislative framework is to enable registrars of births and deaths in the country to share data on deaths with officials of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) which is in charge of Aadhaar management.

Making this data available will empower the UIDAI to disable the Aadhaar number of a dead person, thereby limiting the misuse of the 12-digit digital ID when their original owner dies.

According to Mint, this was the subject of a parliamentary intervention recently when the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, took questions in the Lower House of Parliament – the Lok Sabha.

During the session, the Minister affirmed that there currently is no legal framework which facilitates the deactivation of a dead person’s Aadhaar number, but told the lawmakers that plans were afoot to make this a reality.

The Minister also disclosed that the Registrar General of India has equally been gathering suggestions from various stakeholders, namely from UIDAI, on the draft amendments of the Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969. This legislation, he explained, will set the groundwork for the Registrars to share statistics on deaths with UIDAI so that the digital ID number of the deceased can be expunged from the system.

Mint writes that this move comes at a time when UIDAI has also reached a deal with the India Post Payments Bank to make it possible for Aadhaar cardholders to have their phone numbers updated by postmen without necessarily having to go to UIDAI offices.

More than 99 percent of all Indian adults are said to now be in possession of the Aadhaar digital ID card.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  fraud prevention  |  identity management  |  India  |  legislation  |  UIDAI