Even as protests continue in Bengaluru against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), authorities have announced their plan to hold a two-phase National Population Register (NPR) census in the city.
The state census director SB Vijay Kumar said that phase 1 will involve house listings and housing census in the city and phase 1 will tally the city’s population.
He also told reporters that the citizens no officer would demand documents as proof, he said, “Details of Aadhaar number, PAN, voter ID and driving license number would be sought during the NPR updation, but it is up to the citizens to share them. They can decline to furnish the details, but it won’t affect updation and they won’t be excluded from the NPR.”
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said that the difference in the upcoming census would be that the NPR would also be updated. For data collection, compilation and analysis, three modes would be adopted – the paper format (questions asked and answers written), a mobile app to collect data and the self-enumeration method where citizens would download the app and upload information themselves.
The house listing and housing census will be conducted between April 15 to May 29, 2020, and population enumeration will be done from February 9 to 28, 2021. The revision round will be conducted from March 1-5, 2021.
Both officials have denied links between the NPR and the NRC saying that no documents would be collected during the process.
The Indian Express reported BH Anil Kumar mentioning that the compared to the 2011 Census, in the upcoming census, the number of pages of data to be collected would be lesser and the questions would be in an objective format and answers would not be required in a paragraph form. There would be 34 questions on the condition of the house and 28 questions on population enumeration. Each answer would have a code attached to it to reduce instances of error. The officials said that according to the pre-testing of the census in 147 sample blocks in Hunsur and Chamarajanagar, they had recorded a 40% reduction in data collection and analysis time.
The authorities said that along with ward officers, private and government school teachers would be roped in for the Census. They would be given designated enumeration blocks and 2,630,317 people in the BBMP limits, 19,289 enumerators and 3,215 supervisors would be deployed for the job.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has allotted Rs. 13,000 crore for the 16th census and National Population Register (NPR). Top officials of the government have now emphasized that there is no link between the NPR and the NRC. However, the citizens of the nation are not willing to accept this claim for proof shows otherwise.
In 2014, an answer by the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the link between the NPR and NRC stated, “The scheme of NPR has been reviewed and it has been decided that NPR should be completed and taken to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of NRIC by verification of citizenship status of every usual residents in the NPR.”
Trying to allay the anger of the people who are up in arms against the CAA-NPR-NRC, Amit Shah in an interview to ANI had said, “NPR is the database on which policy is made. NRC is a process in which people are asked to prove their citizenship. There is no connection between the two processes, nor can they be used in each other’s survey. NPR data can never be used for NRC. Even the laws are different…I assure all the people, especially from the minorities, that NPR is not going to be used for NRC. It’s a rumour.”
His statement came after PM Modi declared there had been no discussion either in the Cabinet or the Parliament regarding an all-India NRC in the wake of protests against the CAA and NRC in the country. The BJP too had since deleted a tweet quoting Amit Shah about the implementation of an all-India NRC and the expulsion of all infiltrators.
Keeping public sentiment in mind, 10 states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Chhattisgarh have refused to implement the CAA and NRC, with West Bengal, Kerala and Rajasthan having stalled work on the NPR as well.
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