Aadhaar card was implemented in the country in January 2009. It has been 15 years since the start of issuing Aadhaar number to every citizen. During this period, more than 142 crore Aadhaar cards were issued, but despite the death of more than 8 crore holders, only 1.83 crore cards have been deactivated.
Aadhaar of about 6 crore deceased are still active. About 34 lakh Aadhaar card holders have died in West Bengal. However, their Aadhaar cards are still active. This has increased the apprehensions of bank fraud, fake accounts and misappropriation of government scheme benefits.
According to Bhuvnesh Kumar, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India i.e. UIDAI, UIDAI has so far received data of 1.55 crore deaths from the Registrar General of India (RGI). Between November 2024 and September 2025, a list of 38 lakh more deaths is attached.
Among them, 1.17 crore have been identified and their Aadhaar cards have been deactivated. The authority estimates that 2 crore cards will become inactive by December. UIDAI launched a death notification portal on its website four months ago so that relatives can deactivate the deceased's Aadhaar online.
So far only 3,000 people have entered this information, of which only 500 cases have been confirmed and their cards have been deactivated.
The CEO of UIDAI said- Death registration is still very casual
Bhuvnesh Kumar said, Aadhaar started in 2010. At the same time, around 8 crore Aadhaar holders are estimated to have died since 2016. The Civil Registration System provides data for only 25 states. Data collection from other states is in progress.
He further said that when Aadhaar started being issued, the annual deaths in the country were about 56 lakh. The rising figure reached 85 lakhs. So we are assuming eight crore deaths since 2016. Registration of death is still very casual.
48 lakh record not matched; 80 dead alive
About 48 lakh names have not been matched yet. 4–5% of these records could not be matched due to information entered in the regional language.
In this process, 80 such cases were reported in which people who were declared dead were later found alive. Now these cases are being investigated.
Examination of 8.3 lakh Aadhaar over 100 years
UIDAI's database has 8.30 lakh Aadhaar holders aged over 100 years.
Most of them include 74,000 card holders in Maharashtra, 67,000 in UP, 64,000 in Andhra and 62,000 in Telangana.
States have confirmed only 3,086 cases so far. Of these, 629 are alive, 783 are dead and 1,674 are missing.
Banks and ration system are also signs of trouble
Out of 22 crore Aadhaar-linked accounts of SBI, 8 lakh deceased accounts were closed.
4 lakh deaths were confirmed out of PNB's 14 crore accounts.
Out of 80 crore ration cards linked to PDS, 4.5 lakh deceased's cards were found to be active.
22 lakh death confirmed among two crore pensioners. Information about 5 lakh dead people with insurance companies.
