Before NRC, Government prepares to implement nationwide NPR

Under the NPR, an enumeration will be conducted from house to house across the country from April 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020

New Delhi: In the past week, the protests against Citizenship amendment act spread across the country. National Capital Delhi and several cities in India, including Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Lucknow, Ahmedabad are erupting in protest against the controversial bill. The Bill seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parasis and Buddhists from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The logic being in these Islamist countries the above-mentioned countries are religious minorities who are persecuted.

There are several questions like why the ambit of the act wasn’t kept broader to include persecuted minorities from Sri Lanka, Myanmar or even Tibet? The very fact that it keeps persecuted minorities like Ahmadiyyas from Pakstan, Hazaras and Tajiks from Afghanistan also raises the question of the intent of the Act.

But there has been a nationwide outpour of anger against CAA. But the anger is not only limited to CAA. Protestors are pointing out to the combination of CAA+NRC.

The NRC has already been carried out in the state of Assam. The second draft list which led to widespread concerns had left out 40 Lakh people. More than 19 lakh have been excluded from the final version of the (NRC) in Assam. A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for the NRC, of which 3.11 crore made it to the final list. That was for Assam. Now, on several occasions, Home Minister Amit Shah himself has said that his government will roll out a nationwide NRC.

But do you know? The groundwork for the NRC might have been begun already.

Many of you have not heard of it till now, but this is related to NPR- National Population Register. The NPR became the talking point when the West Bengal Government headed by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee stayed all work related to the preparation and update of the National Population Register in the state.

Following West Bengal, in Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan showed red signal to NPR. But the Modi government is not very happy with the resistance from the states. It has already said that despite protests, there will be no rollback on CAA. However, it has also said that NRC has just been conveyed, it is not going to happen soon.

However, on NPR the government is very clear. Today, the Council of Ministers is conducting a meeting. On Tuesday Modi cabinet is set to meet and there are strong speculations that it may now focus on NPR renewal.

What exactly is NPR?

Under the NPR, an enumeration will be conducted from house to house across the country from April 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, it is a list of “usual residents of the country”. Who does that mean? It means a person who has been residing in a local area for at least the last six months or intends to stay in a particular location for the next six months.

While NRC is a process to document legal citizens of India, NPR might even include foreigners who are residing in India for 6 or more months.

The NPR will contain demographic as well as the biometric database of the usual residents. The demographics database includes a person’s name, age, sex, family details, marital status, nationality, educational qualifications, occupation, birthplace, date of birth, residential address, mother tongue, etc. Biometric, as we all know, includes thumb impressions, Iris Recognition, Retina Scan, Facial Recognition, etc. We have all gone through this process while making an Aadhar card.

How will NPR be conducted?

The NPR exercise is conducted at the local, sub-district, district, state and national levels. The pilot project has already begun in over 1,200 villages and 40 towns and cities through 5,218 enumeration blocks.

It will be conducted in conjunction with the house listing phase, the first phase of the Census.

Is it related to Census or NRC?

Now a lot of people may tend to link NPR with Census. But is it so? Here’s the answer: The National Population Register is being conducted under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the 2003 rules while the Census is done under the Census Act, 1948.

In 2003 the Atal Bihari Vajpayee govt amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 to include the category of an “illegal migrant”. A certain set of rules were laid down for the implementation of the amendment.

Here is what the rules read:

“The Central Government shall, for the purpose of National Register of Indian Citizens, cause to carry throughout the country a house-to-house enumeration for collection of specified particulars relating to each family and individual, residing in a local area including the Citizenship status”

It further specifies that there will be a local register maintained. A category of doubtful citizens will be created after carrying out the verification process and these citizens will be asked to prove if they are Indians or not.

The NPR, however, excludes Assam where NRC took place without NPR.

Now many activists have expressed concern on the part where a list of doubtful citizens will be prepared. Here the process relies on a bureaucrat to decide who is a doubtful citizen.

Many states are already rejecting the CAA and have said that they will not implement NRC. Now NPR is also facing resistance. But the govt says that the states do not have the powers to stop the implementation as it is a center’s subject.

Well, with CAA, NRC and NPR the state vs center divide only seems to grow. It is our duty to inform you in detail about these topics. Be informed and make your opinions and your decision.