Aadhaar card has become mandatory for almost everyone in almost all spheres of life. Now, it has also become mandatory even in the matters of death. According to a report in a Hindi newspaper, authorities in Banaras aka Kaashi will now ask relatives to show Aadhaar of the deceased before the last rites are allowed for that person. Authorities at Manikarnika Ghat and Harishchandra Ghat in collaboration with National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) have made Aadhaar card mandatory for the last rites of dead ones.

The facility for corpse carrier motorboats will be given to only those who carry the Aadhaar ID of their deceased relative to the ghat.

The move comes after reports of people secretly performing last rites of people dying in suspicious conditions came to light. Sudhanshu Mehta Foundation, the group working for the cause of development of Manikarnika Ghat and facilities for last rites, started the corpse-carrying motorboat service in the year 2015. There are total four such motorboats currently operating in the Ganges of Varanasi.

When the news of people secretly burning suspicious dead bodies reached ears of the Foundation members, the group started asking for the details of the deceased before offering the motorboat services. This caused agitation among people seeing which NDRF decided to make Aadhaar mandatory before providing the corpse carrier motorboat.

While this new move may appear an outcome of good intentions, Aadhaar has been a hotbed for privacy-related debates since its launch. Government's order to make Aadhaar card mandatory at all places has not gone down well with many privacy advocates stating that Aadhaar data is insecure and anybody can hack it. There have several cases of Aadhaar data leak in past two years.

In a recent incident, two privacy experts have claimed that two public-sector enterprises leaked Aadhaar data of select people and the issue was fixed only a month after by UIDAI.

However, with Aadhaar now made mandatory for last rites in Kaashi, the move may not go down well with everyone. Varanasi is one of the holy cities for many Hindus in India and it is believed that the person attains salvation if his or her last rites are performed on the ghats of Varanasi.