Government suggests Aadhaar holders to update details "at least once" in 10 years

The government has said that Aadhaar card holders may, on the completion of 10 years of them being issued the identity card, update their details by submitting a proof of address and identity.

In a gazette notification, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that “Aadhaar number holders may, on completion of every 10 years from the date of enrolment for Aadhaar, update their supporting documents in Aadhaar, at least once, by submitting Proof of Identity (POI) and Proof of Address (POA) documents”.

This exercise, though not mandatory, should be done at least once every decade to keep the Aadhaar database updated, an IT ministry official said.


“It will also help in weeding out fake and duplicate Aadhaar card details, thus enabling better and targeted direct transfer of government benefits,” the official said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues and manages the Aadhaar biometric identification system earlier this year said that it had completed enrolment of almost all the adults in India barring some remote areas in Nagaland and Ladakh.

The UIDAI has also roped in postmen of the India Post Payments Bank to go door-to-door in the remotest parts of the country and link the Aadhaar numbers with mobile numbers, update details, and conduct enrolment of children at the doorstep.

In the initial phase, 48,000 postmen were trained, while the UIDAI is now in the process of training all 150,000 postmen as a part of its expansion plans aimed at reaching out to more people and enrolling as many citizens as possible.