Blurb: The large-scale drive was launched in September 2025 after UIDAI successfully integrated its systems with the UDISE+ application
New Delhi
In a significant milestone under its mission-mode outreach, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has completed more than one crore Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBUs) for schoolchildren across India.
The achievement covers students enrolled in nearly 83,000 schools nationwide, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Sunday.
The large-scale drive was launched in September 2025 after UIDAI successfully integrated its systems with the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) application. This technological integration proved to be a key breakthrough, as it enabled schools and authorities to track the MBU status of children in real time. Using this data, schools and UIDAI jointly identified students due for biometric updates and organised on-site camps to complete the process efficiently.
Under existing Aadhaar norms, children below the age of five are enrolled using demographic details such as name, date of birth, address, photograph, and birth certificate. Fingerprints and iris scans are not collected at that stage, as biometric traits are not fully developed. As a result, biometric updates are mandatory when a child crosses the ages of five and fifteen, making MBUs a crucial requirement for maintaining a valid Aadhaar record.
UIDAI has warned that failure to complete MBUs can create difficulties in Aadhaar-based authentication, potentially affecting access to government welfare schemes and participation in major examinations such as NEET, JEE, and CUET, as well as university admissions.
To encourage participation and improve accessibility, UIDAI waived the charges for MBUs for children in the 7–15 age group from October 1, 2025, for a period of one year. Biometric updates for children aged 5–7 and 15–17 years continue to remain free of cost.
Beyond school-based camps, children have also been completing MBUs at Aadhaar enrolment centres and Aadhaar Seva Kendras across the country. Around 1.3 crore additional MBU transactions were recorded during the same period through these centres, reflecting strong nationwide uptake.
