Mha Annual Report Underlines Need to Update National Population Register Across Country

What’s in today’s article:

• National Population Register (NPR) – About, legal basis, details required for NPR
• News Summary

Why in news?

• The Home ministry in its latest annual report has underlined the need to update the National Population Register (NPR) database across the country, except Assam.
• This is to incorporate the changes due to birth, death, and migration for which demographic and other particulars of each family and individual are to be collected.

National Population Register (NPR)

• The NPR is a register of usual residents of the country. It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
  • According to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, a usual resident is:
    • a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more; or
    • a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
  • It includes both Indian citizens as well as a foreign citizen.
• The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country.
• The first National Population Register was prepared in 2010 and updating this data was done during 2015 by conducting door to door survey.
  • The next National Population Register was to be held along with the Census 2021.
  • Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the work of NPR updation and other related field activities got postponed.
• NPR is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) under the Home Ministry.

Legal basis of NPR

• NPR is prepared under Rule 3 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
  • These rules were framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
• The NPR is different from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which excludes the foreign citizens.
  • NRC is a register containing details of Indian Citizens living in India and outside India.

Details required for NPR

• The demographic details are required for every usual resident on 21 points.
• This includes ‘date and place of birth of parents’, last place of residence, Permanent Account Number (PAN), Aadhar (on a voluntary basis), Voter ID card number, Driving License Number and Mobile Number.
• In the NPR done in 2010, the data was collected on the 15 points and it did not include ‘date and place of birth of parents’ and last place of residence.

News Summary

• There is a need to update the NPR again to incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration for which demographic and other particulars of each family and individual are to be collected.
• This was stressed upon by the recently published annual report of MHA.

Key Highlights of the report:

• Three-pronged approach for updating the NPR database
  • It will include:
    • self-updating wherein residents will update their own data after following some authentication protocols  on a web portal.
    • updating of NPR data in paper format, and
    • mobile mode.
  • The demographic and other particulars of each family and individual are to be collected/updated during the exercise.
  • No documents or biometrics will be collected during the updation.
• Citizenship certificates granted by authorities
  • The report also said that from April 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021, a total of 1,414 citizenship certificates have been granted by all authorities.
  • As per the report, the Central government has delegated its powers to grant Indian citizenship with respect to certain categories to Collectors of 29 districts and Home Secretaries of nine states.
    • This includes powers to grant citizenship by registration or naturalisation with respect to members of Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian or Parsi communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
• Long-term visas issued
  • The report said that the Home Ministry granted long-term visas to 2,439 members of minority communities from the three neighbouring countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh) in the last one year.
    • Long term visa is a precursor to Indian citizenship.
• CAA not mentioned
  • The report, a compilation of all the achievements and functions of the Ministry, however, does not mention the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
    • CAA fast-tracks the citizenship of six non-Muslim undocumented communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India before December 31, 2014,
    • This legislation is yet to be implemented as the rules have not been framed yet.