The Centre has made it mandatory for all schools across the country to issue and update Aadhaar for students in order to help them access Government benefits and competitive exams.
Updating Aadhaar biometrics is important for children as it later may lead to difficulties in authentication for receiving benefits under various welfare schemes, registering for competitive and university examinations like NEET, JEE, CUET etc. It is noted that many times students and parents rush for Aadhaar updates at the last moment leading to anxieties. This can be avoided with timely biometric updates.
To take up this large scale effort, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has joined hands with the education ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy to provide the Mandatory Biometric Update (MBU) status pertaining to Aadhaar of school children on the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) application — a move that will facilitate MBU in Aadhaar for crores of students.
Sources said UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar has written to all the Chief Secretaries of States and UTs apprising them of the initiative and requesting them to support in conducting targeted MBU camps.
“It was thought that a camp approach through the schools could help in completing the pending MBUs. The main question was how the schools would know which students have not done the biometric updates. The technology teams of UIDAI and Department of School Education and Literacy, Govt of India have worked together to successfully implement a solution through the UDISE+ application. Now all the schools can have the visibility of the pending MBUs,” CEO UIDAI wrote.
Timely completion of MBU in Aadhaar is an essential requirement for children at the age of five and once again at 15 years of age. It is crucial for maintaining the accuracy and reliability of biometric data of children in Aadhaar. There are approximately 17 crore Aadhaar numbers where the mandatory biometrics update is pending, government sources said.
The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) is an educational management information system under the Department of School Education & Literacy and captures various statistics related to school education. This joint initiative from UIDAI and Department of School Education is expected to go a long way towards providing ease of updating biometrics of children, said a UIDAI official.