The UIDAI in another pro-people initiative has decided that those between the ages of 7 and 15 shall be exempted from the payment of fees for Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBU). It is predicted to be a blessing to nearly 60 million children across the country.
Effective October 1, 2025, and running for one year, the waiver shall be considered in force.
Under current Aadhaar rules, children enrolled below the age of five provide basic details such as name, date of birth, gender, address, and photograph, but fingerprints and iris scans are not captured at that stage as they are not fully developed. Therefore, the first MBU is required when the child reaches five years of age, and a second update is required at 15 years.
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Previously, MBUs performed between ages 5–7 and 15–17 were free, after which a fee of Rs. 125 per update applied. With this new decision, MBUs will now be free for all children aged 5–17 years.
Any biometric update made to Aadhaar opens easier access to essential services like school admissions, entrance examinations, scholarships, and DBT schemes. UIDAI has requested the parents and/or guardians to update the Aadhaar details of their children at the earliest.
