NEW DELHI: For the next three months, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will not charge citizens to update documents in their Aadhaar online.

The decision was taken as part of Digital India move, and residents urged to get the benefit of free document update facility on myAadhaar portal.  The free service will be offered for the next three months, from March 15 to June 14, but only on the myAadhaar portal. As before, it will still cost Rs 50 to use the service at physical Aadhaar centres.

In particular, if Aadhaar was issued more than ten years ago and was never updated, the UIDAI has been urging residents to upload Proof of Identity and Proof of Address (PoI/PoA) documents to revalidate their demographic information. This will increase the success rate of authentication and contribute to better service delivery and increased convenience of living.

Residents have two options if they need to update their demographic information (Name, Date of Birth, Address, etc.): they can use the standard online update service or go to the local Aadhar centre. In these situations, standard fees will be charged.

The Aadhaar number has become a widely recognised form of identification for Indian citizens during the past ten years. Aadhaar-based identification is used for service delivery in around 1,200 government initiatives and programmes, which are managed by both the federal government and state governments. In addition, a number of other services offered by service providers, like as financial institutions like banks and NBFCs, are also utilising Aadhaar to easily authenticate and onboard consumers.

Aadhaar number holders are permitted, under the Aadhaar Enrollment and Updating Rules, 2016, to update their supporting papers in Aadhaar at least once every ten years from the date of enrollment in order to maintain the accuracy of their data.

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