New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) Aadhaar custodian UIDAI has completed mandatory biometric updates (MBU) for one crore school children covering 83,000 schools across the country, an official statement said.

A child under the age of five can enrol for Aadhaar by providing the photograph, name, date of birth, gender, address and birth certificate but the fingerprints and iris biometrics of a child are not captured for Aadhaar enrolment below the age of five as these indicators are not mature by then.

Therefore, providing fingerprints and iris information in Aadhaar by following the process of MBU, upon crossing the ages of 5 and 15 years, is an essential requirement for children.

Lack of MBU in Aadhaar may lead to difficulties while carrying out authentication for receiving benefits under various government schemes, registering in competitive and university examinations like NEET, JEE, CUET etc.

"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.

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has made MBU free for children in the age group of 7 to 15 years from October 1 for one year period.

"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 about the initiative by the authority and requested their support in conducting focussed MBU camps at 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.

In addition to camps held at schools, children can also complete their MBU at any of the Aadhaar enrolment centres and Aadhaar Seva Kendras running 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. PTI PRS MR