UIDAI hits 1 crore Aadhaar biometrics update milestone: What parents need to know

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday said it has completed over one crore Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBUs) for schoolchildren across 83,000 schools nationwide as part of a mission-mode drive launched last year.

The special campaign, rolled out in September 2025 after UIDAI’s integration with the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), enabled authorities and schools to identify children due for biometric updates and organise on-campus enrolment camps.

"The UIDAI has crossed the milestone of completing over one crore Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBUs) for school-children studying in 83000 schools across the country," an offical statement said.

What parents need to know

A child under the age of five can enrol for Aadhaar by providing the photograph, name, date of birth, gender, address and birth certificate but the fingerprints and iris biometrics of a child are not captured for Aadhaar enrolment below the age of five as these indicators are not mature by then.

Providing fingerprints and iris information in Aadhaar by following the process of MBU, upon crossing the ages of 5 and 15 years, is an essential requirement for children.

UIDAI said failure to complete MBUs could lead to authentication issues while availing benefits under government schemes or during registrations for competitive and university examinations such as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Joint Entrance Examination and Common University Entrance Test.

UIDAI said its regional offices coordinated with state education departments, district administrations, registrars and school authorities over the past five months to carry out the exercise.

The campaign remains ongoing until all schools in the country are covered.

UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar has written to Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories about the initiative by the authority and requested their support in conducting focussed MBU camps at schools.

The authority waived MBU charges for children aged 7–15 from October 1, 2025, for a one-year period.

Biometric updates for children in the 5–7 and 15–17 age brackets continue to remain free.

Apart from school camps, children can also complete MBUs at Aadhaar enrolment centres and Aadhaar Seva Kendras across the country.

UIDAI said around 1.3 crore additional MBU transactions were carried out during the same period at these centres.