BENGALURU: Even as the State Government has directed the Department of School Education and Literacy to complete the Aadhaar mandatory biometric enrollment of students by March 1, the department has been able to complete it only in seven districts.
An official said, “As of December 31, 2025, we have completed only 9,907 enrolments and still over 12 lakh students’ Aadhaar biometrics is pending. We have started with districts that have a higher number of students. Therefore, we have started with Belagavi, Belagavi-Chikkodi, Bengaluru Urban North, Bengaluru Urban South, Kalaburagi, Mysuru and Vijayapura. The highest number of pending updates are 3,87,858 in Bengaluru Urban South and 2,35,023 in Bengaluru Urban North. This is the first phase and we hope to begin the second phase soon.”
“We have designed it phase-wise because of a shortage of kits and technical staffers needed to update biometrics, scan iris and capture photos. While the expected number of kits is 170 to 180, we have 70 kits available with us.”
School principals have been involved to create awareness about Aadhaar renewal camps.
Shashidhar Kosambe, president, Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said, “Over 20 lakh children are studying in government schools. We received complaints of shortage of kits for updation of Aadhaar biometrics. It is important that the education department take the future of children seriously and update the biometrics on priority. Only then, students will get government scholarships.”
In December 2025, the State Government had directed the education department to initiate the Aadhaar biometric update as many students were missing out on scholarship benefits provided by state and central governments.
