After India Today expose, over 2.5 crore dead Aadhaar holders removed from system
India Today
The Centre has sharply accelerated the deactivation of Aadhaar numbers linked to deceased persons, striking off over 2.5 crore IDs—more than the previous 14 years combined.
The government has sharply accelerated the deactivation of Aadhaar numbers linked to deceased persons, with more numbers struck off in the last six months than in the previous 14 years combined, months after an RTI-based India Today report highlighted major gaps in the process.
In a reply tabled in Parliament, the government said that more than 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers of deceased individuals have now been deactivated. This marks a steep rise from the 1.17 crore deactivations recorded since the launch of Aadhaar over 14 years, a figure revealed by India Today through a Right to Information query published in July 2026.
That RTI report had drawn attention to a widening mismatch between Aadhaar deactivations and mortality data. While UIDAI had deactivated only 1.17 crore Aadhaar numbers over 14 years, official Civil Registration System data showed an average of 83.5 lakh deaths annually between 2007 and 2019. The gap suggested that crores of Aadhaar numbers linked to deceased persons remained active for years.
The issue went beyond statistics. Aadhaar serves as the gateway to pensions, rations, scholarships and bank accounts, and active numbers linked to the deceased carry risks of identity misuse, ghost beneficiaries and leakages in welfare schemes.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on February 4, 2026, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric identity system with around 134 crore live holders, must be deactivated promptly after death to prevent identity fraud and unauthorised use of Aadhaar-linked welfare benefits.
The data presented to Parliament underlined the sudden shift. Until mid-2025, Aadhaar deactivations lagged far behind mortality figures. In the months following the India Today report, authorities deactivated more than 1.3 crore additional Aadhaar numbers—exceeding the total deactivations carried out over the previous 14 years.
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