There is no statutory route to delete an existing Aadhaar number, and the UIDAI has built no functioning opt‑out mechanism. A child enrolled before turning five can technically be opted out at majority, but in practice the request is rarely entertained. For everyone else, the realistic question is not “how do I delete it” but “where do I refuse to use it, and how do I help others who are being shut out.”
Refusal still matters. Every fresh demand for Aadhaar, at a school, a bank, a hospital, a service counter, is a place to push back, cite the Supreme Court’s limits in Puttaswamy (2018), and ask for the alternative documents that the law continues to recognise. Documenting refusals, denials and exclusions, and making that documentation public, is itself part of the campaign.
The most useful thing most people can do is collective, not individual: sign on, write to MPs, support people who have been excluded from rations or pensions, and amplify the documented harms. Concrete steps are listed on our Take action page.