New Delhi: As many as 4,844 foreigners have been granted Indian citizenship in the past five years, the government told the Lok Sabha Tuesday. In 2021, the government granted almost three times the number of Indian citizenships compared to 2020, the House was informed.
According to the data, 817 foreigners were granted Indian citizenship in 2017, 628 in 2018, 987 in 2019, 639 in 2020 and 1,773 in 2021.
“The citizenship of India is governed under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Citizenship to eligible foreigners is granted by registration under section 5, by naturalization under section 6 or by incorporation of territory under section 7 of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The reasons for taking Indian citizenship vary in terms of specific circumstances of each applicant subject to the provisions contained in the Citizenship Act, 1955 and rules made thereunder,” Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in reply to a question.
According to data provided by the government in Parliament earlier, as many as 8,244 people from Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian faith from the three countries applied for Indian citizenship of which 3,117 were granted the same till December 2021. Interestingly, between 2018 and 2020, the total number of foreigners from across the world who were granted Indian Citizenship stood at 2,254. The overall data for 2021 was not available.
“Number of citizenship applications received from Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minorities groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan during the year 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 is 8244. The number of Indian citizenship granted to people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minorities groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan during the years 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 is 3117,” MoS Home Rai told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question.
In reply to another question regarding the total number of foreigners granted Indian Citizenship earlier, Rai informed the House that between 2016 and 2020, as many as 4,177 people were granted Indian Citizenship. Of these 628 were approved in 2018, 987 in 2019 and 639 in 2020.
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