Kamal Ghorui
Aadhaar custodian UIDAI has completed mandatory biometric updates (MBU) for over one crore school children across 83,000 schools nationwide, according to an official statement.A child below five years can enrol for Aadhaar using photograph, name, date of birth, gender, address and birth certificate. However, fingerprints and iris biometrics are not captured at this stage as these indicators are not fully developed, PTI reported. Providing fingerprint and iris data through the MBU process after crossing the ages of five and 15 years is therefore mandatory.Lack of MBU in Aadhaar may lead to difficulties in authentication for availing benefits under various government schemes, as well as while registering for competitive and university examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET.“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,” the statement said.UIDAI has made MBU free for children aged between seven and 15 years from October 1 for a period of one year.“UIDAI had initiated this special MBU drive for school-children in September 2025 after a successful technological integration with the Unified District Information System for Education Plus application, that enabled visibility of MBUs status of children at schools. This breakthrough helped the UIDAI and schools to jointly identify children who were due for an MBU, and hold camps at schools to complete the MBU,” the statement said.UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar has written to Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories, seeking support for conducting focused MBU camps in schools.“The mission mode campaign continues to be operational till such time all schools in the country are covered. This initiative has already benefited 1 crore children in 83,000 schools and many more are set to gain from it,” the statement said.Apart from school camps, children can also complete MBU at Aadhaar enrolment centres and Aadhaar Seva Kendras across the country.“About 1.3 crore MBU transactions have also been completed in the same period, by children visiting these centres,” the statement said.
