Aadhar card
The central government has taken a big step to maintain the credibility of Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric identification system. The government has so far deactivated more than 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers, which were in the names of people who have passed away. Its purpose is to keep the Aadhaar database clean and secure, so that any kind of fraud or misuse can be prevented.
This information was given by Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasad in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. He said that this process is going on across the country and its objective is to ensure that the benefits of government schemes and services reach only the genuine and live beneficiaries.
wrong use of dead person’s aadhaar
According to the government, keeping Aadhaar number active after a person’s death can lead to identity fraud. In such cases, wrongful benefits of bank account, SIM card or government schemes can be availed by using the Aadhaar of the deceased person. In view of this danger, it has been considered necessary to close the Aadhaar numbers of dead people.
134 crore active Aadhaar holders
At present there are about 134 crore active Aadhaar holders in the country. Keeping such a large system updated and correct is a big challenge. The government said that many times the death is registered in another city or state, while the address recorded in the Aadhaar card is something else. In such a situation, it becomes even more important to merge various databases and close the Aadhaar number on time.
The government has also taken several technical measures to enhance the security of the Aadhaar system. Biometric lock and unlock features allow people to lock their fingerprint and iris information and prevent unauthorized access. Apart from this, liveness detection feature has been added in face authentication, which ensures that the real person is present in front.
To further strengthen the security, all institutions have been instructed to keep the Aadhaar number in encrypted form in the data vault. Besides, the government has also launched a new Aadhaar app, through which family members can easily give information about death. The government says that this entire exercise is an important step towards keeping the Aadhaar system transparent, secure and reliable.