There is no provision to cancel or surrender Aadhaar, even after death

About 1.23 billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated until 20 February 2019, according to data available on the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) website. Aadhaar is a 12-digit identification number the UIDAI issues to the residents of India. However, once generated, there is no process to cancel or surrender Aadhaar, even after the death of a person. Also, there is no provision to even update information about a holder’s death in the Aadhaar database.

This could be one of the reasons why, in some states, the number of Aadhaar holders is higher than the total population. For instance, the saturation level in Delhi is 119.1%. In other words, while the total population in Delhi is 18.34 million, 21.84 million Aadhaar numbers have been assigned in the state.