India deactivated 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers of deceased people to prevent fraud and maintain system integrity.

India has deactivated over 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers linked to deceased individuals to prevent fraud and ensure accurate welfare distribution. The move, confirmed by Union Minister Jitin Prasada, is part of ongoing efforts to maintain the integrity of the world’s largest biometric identity system, serving over 134 crore people. The government has enhanced security with biometric locks, face authentication using liveness detection, encrypted data vaults for third parties, and secure QR codes for offline verification. Core biometric data remains protected and is not shared. A new Aadhaar app allows families to report deaths and share verified documents securely, supporting continuous database cleanup through de-duplication and deactivation. These steps aim to keep the system reliable and fraud-resistant.