New Delhi | The Unique Identification Authority of India has deactivated Aadhaar numbers of over 2.5 crore deceased persons to prevent misuse of the identity document, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric identity system with approximately 134 crore live Aadhaar holders.

"As part of a nationwide clean-up effort to maintain the continued accuracy and integrity of the Aadhaar database, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has deactivated more than 2.5 crore Aadhaar numbers of deceased persons till date.

In case of the death of a person, it is essential that his or her Aadhaar number is deactivated to prevent potential identity fraud, or unauthorised usage of such Aadhaar number for availing welfare benefit," Prasada said.

He said several measures have been taken to reduce the risk of identity fraud and ensure leak-proof delivery of benefits in the country, including the biometric lock and unlock feature, which enables an Aadhaar number holder to "Lock" his or her biometrics, preventing any unauthorised authentication attempts.

The minister said that "Face Authentication" has been deployed with 'Liveness Detection feature' to prevent spoofing and ensure the physical presence of the beneficiary during transactions.

He said measures have been taken to promote Aadhaar Secure QR Code, Aadhaar paperless offline e-KYC, e-Aadhaar and Aadhaar verifiable credentials for offline identity verification