While the only legal way of linking the two databases is by acquiring informed consent from every resident through an exercise similar to the Census, which means through a public exercise conducted by the Registrar General of India (RGI), the process appears to have happened without any informed consent.

There is yet another angle or twist. In 2020, at the height of the nationwide agitation against the CAA-NPR-NRC, the union government had announced that the Census (now not conducted since 2011 and which was statutorily due in 2021) will also conduct the NPR simultaneously. There was an outcry of protest against this with several state governments calling for a boycott against answering those questions in the Census form that had to do with the NPR.

Four specific questions included in the NPR-NRC especially the one concerning parents’ places and dates of birth had been added. Pushed into a corner by several unaffiliated state governments, the Home Ministry was compelled to admit, that answering questions in the NPR is purely voluntary while under the Census Ac, 1948, there is a legal obligation to answer all questions put every ten years. The Census process is oral and conducted by designated officers of the RGI without any document that takes or asks for signatures. Census data collection, house-listing and household data collection is crucial for understanding demographics and formulation of policies.

In contrast, the enumeration for the NPR can only be conducted under the provisions of The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 which in fact go beyond the Section amended Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (amended in 2004) and are therefore arguably ultra vires of the Act itself. Section 14A of the amended Citizenship Act, 1955 (amendment in 2004) states simply that the government “may compulsorily register every citizen as a citizen of India and issue a national identity card to him”. It is the Rules that ascribe the process of NPR enumeration not the Act. Both Section 14A and the Rules are currently under multiple challenges in the Supreme Court.

Given this background to the manner in which the union government has been reluctant to share information publicly, also given its doubtful credentials over data collection and maintenance of data integrity, 2023 brought another surprise.

The Annual Report 2021-22 of MHA declared that crucial personal data –that can only be collected through a rigorous door to door enumeration process by officials under the Registrar General of India (RGI) and which includes Name, Gender, Date and Place of Birth, Place of Residence, Father’s and Mother’s Name was (already) collected, albeit in secretive manner, by seeding Aadhar. Mobile and Ration Card. A series of RTIs has led us to conclude that the exercise was conducted without the informed consent of Indians. A further scrutiny of MHA Reports of 2010, 2015-2016 and 2020 raise more questions.

The scale of NPR-Aadhaar linkage

How many of the NPR updated records contain the details from the Aadhaar card and have the Aadhaar number?

While the 2020 NPR Manual mentions that Aadhaar numbers in the NPR booklet came from the 2015-2016 exercise of “updating the NPR”, the RGI is silent on this and repeated efforts under Right to Information Act (RTI) to the RGI have not helped clarify the exact scale of the linkage. The 2014-15 Annual Report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) says that the “data digitization process has been completed” and a database of “119.19 crore persons created.” The 2017-18 Annual Report of MHA contradicts this and says that, ” demographic data of 119.95 crore persons was collected in 2010 and has been updated during 2015- 16 in all States / UTs except Assam and Meghalaya”.

While there are several annual reports of MHA that give a count of the NPR records linked with Aadhaar numbers, those reports correspond to the period before the updating exercise of 2015-16. The Annual Report of 2014-15 states that NPR data of more than 23.51 crores persons has been set to UIDAI for duplication and generation of Aadhaar number, of which UIDAI generated 19.67 crores Aadhaar numbers, which is in turn a quarter of the 80.46 crore Aadhaar database generated by UIDAI.=

This number could only have grown after the 2015-16 exercise, which was intended to be a giant leap for the scale of linkage. The official records are clear that the leap did take place, but unclear on the scale or implications.

Is the NPR-Aadhaar linkage illegal?

The NPR database is distinct from the Aadhaar database. While the former draws strength from the amended section 14A of the Citizenship Act, that provides for the possibility of a National Identity Card for Citizens (Rules outline the NPR as the procedure to achieve this). The Aadhar card is simply a proof of residence, with biometric data collection to enable access to government schemes etc. The legal provision for Aadhaar came through the Aadhaar Act of 2016, which made informed consent of the holder of the Aadhaar number mandatory for its use for any specific purpose. After the 2018 judgement in the Aadhaar case limiting its proliferation (that struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act that enabled private entities to use Aadhaar data for services), serious issues of policy incursions into privacy have also been flagged.

The issue is complex. In 2010, an exercise thereafter amended, demographic information for the NPR were collected through a door-to-door enumeration process conducted by RGI, on the basis of a signed form; thereafter this exercise was abandoned. The Aadhaar number was assigned by the UIDAI authorities after the collection of biometric data including photographs, ten fingerprints and IRIS prints. The Aadhaar number is supposed to be the link between the records of one person in the two databases.

However, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 did not provide for linking of two databases controlled by two different agencies. Data for Aadhaar had actually been collected by various private agencies through camps, and not through any door-to-door visit by enumerators engaged by RGI. The wholesale linkage that happened till 2015, without specific consent of any of the Aadhaar number holders, was not backed by that law or any other law. Thus, the legitimacy of NPR – as of 2015 – is highly questionable.

Besides, the very purpose of NPR has been to establish residency (and then citizenship) on the basis of documentation, shifting the burden of proof on an individual that will then expose himself to the tyranny of a local bureaucracy controlled by governments. Absence or anomalies in these documents will lead to arbitrary exclusions from the “ordinary residents” (citizenship list) causing untold hardships and social upheavals. As the lived current experience of the state of Assam reveals. The process if not just fundamentally unfair, the ultra vires process exposes the defenceless individual to the judgment of local authorities.

Come 2019 December and the passage of the religion biased Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) caused outrage. Assertions by senior functionaries of the present union government that the implementation of the CAA-NPR-NRC would “follow a chronology” led to legitimate fears that this was the aggressive first step to use the tyranny of a bureaucratic document test to exclude hundreds of thousands of disempowered and marginalized Indians from their citizenship. Any day now fears of this “chronology” being set in motion may be realized as the CAA Rules (pending since 2019 when the Act was passed) are underway.

Assam has to date spent Rs 1,700 crores on an excruciating exercise that has caused burdens on the not just the state but a third plus of the 3.3 crore population. Arbitrary exclusions have been marked by baseless “notices” being sent by the Assam Border Police and Foreigner Tribunals (adjudicating bodies controlled by the state executive) and while a significant 2, 22, 000 citizens and their families reel under the burden of either being excluded from the NRC or being declared “suspected foreigners” or “D” Voters, our experience on the ground shows that 99 per cent or more are “genuine’ Indians!

The linkage of NPR with the Aadhaar database –without informed consent—and in a hasty and secretive manner– creates further possibility of anomalies and mismatch in documents Added to this, the the proviso, contained in the 2003 Rules that shift the burden of proof on individuals to “prove” citizenship is a recipe made for largescale social disaster and a humanitarian crisis.

It was this belated realization that had most likely led the MHA to abandon the pilot project begun earlier (obliquely referred to MHA Annual Report 2008-09).The complication referred to here is the lack of documentation of genuine citizens in this country, and also the imbalance of the power equation between the common man and the local face of the government. The same complications apply equally to genuine residents.

A union government that is truly representative of all Indians will, from the Assam experience, understanbd this. An unaccountable regime may not.

(The author is a senior journalist and Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace)

Reference: https://cjp.org.in/cjp-exclusive-how-the-union-of-india-took-a-giant-step-towards-both-npr-nrc-in-2015-without-informed-consent/

(A collective citizens’ investigation by Metiabruz Kolkatta in close collaborators with Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp.org.in))

Related:

Policing & Profiling Citizens: Using Aadhar data to create an NPR, profiling Christians?

Will recently amended Birth Registration law be (mis)used to curb voting rights, even launch the dreaded NPR?

The post Creating an NPR for an all India NRC without informed consent? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Mr Dolphy D’Souza, President, Bombay Catholic Sabha, Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace, Javed Anand, Convenor, Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), Debashis Sengupta, Jitendranath Nandi, Abijit Mitra (citizens all associated with the Bengali magazine, Manthan Samayiki, Kolkata) addressed a press conference at the Press Club in Mumbai highlighting the issue of policing and profiling of citizens by the Maharashtra government and Union government respectively. Senior counsel, Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court also addressed the press conference.

The issue of non-transparent seeding of Aadhaar data and creating a National Population Register (NPR) which is the basis for the All-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) between 2015 and now raises questions of the violations of the Constitution (Article 14,15,19 and 21 of the Constitution and Section 14A of the Citizenship Action, 1955, Setalvad revealed. A staggering NPR database of 19.34 crores appears to have been created through this seeding which appears on the face of it to be violative of the law.

Under the existing law (under challenge in the Supreme Court presently), while there is a detailed procedure laid out of house to house renumeration, by officials under the Registrar General of India (RGI), seeking such information with informed consent of individuals, this legal requirement appears to have been circumvented. Aadhar data, collected for a different purpose entirely cannot be the basis for a more robust and accountable data collection –if and when—for the NPR and NRC. Besides, no public announcements on these have been made by the Union government, facing strong opposition from at least seven state governments and widespread opposition to the idea.

(Please see the entire Investigation here https://cjp.org.in/cjp-exclusive-how-the-union-of-india-took-a-giant-step-towards-both-npr-nrc-in-2015-without-informed-consent/ CJP EXCLUSIVE: How the Union of India took a giant step towards both NPR & NRC in 2015 without informed consent. This step was taken when information contained in the Aadhaar database was linked with the NPR database without informed consent, a CJP investigation with collaboration indicates)

Profiling of Christians?

The second issue that were elaborated upon were, one, the selective profiling of Christians in the MMRDA region (Mumbai, Thane, Mira Road-Bhayander) under the guise of the Maratha survey without any disclosure by the state government. Several instances were put forth and this brought back haunting memories for the city of 1992-1993 when Mumbai’s Muslims were selectively profiled and then physically targeted.

The Bombay Catholic Sabha and Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai, have received reports from citizens across the city, spanning areas like Vikhroli, Gokuldham, Goregaon East, and even Thane. According to these reports, individuals using an App-based software under the guise of the Maratha Reservation Survey (attached form) are inquiring about the Maratha community as well as asking Christians (based on received reports) about their religion and conversion history, while refusing to disclose their own identities. Issues of which organisations this survey has been outsourced to , no full disclosure  were raised.

Giant Leap towards NPR without informed consent?

Debashis Sengupta, Jitendranath Nandi, Abijit Mitra (citizens all associated with the Bengali magazine, Manthan Samayiki, Kolkata) highlighted how, citizen’s activism through the Right to Information Act (RTI) has revealed how, a giant step towards NPR and NRC was taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) when information contained in the Aadhaar database was linked with the NPR database in 2015. While the only legal way of linking the two databases is by acquiring informed consent from every resident through a public exercise similar to the Census conducted by the Registrar General of India (RGI), investigations reveal that the exercise did not have any provision to collect any informed consent for this linkage. The involved citizens in and around Metiabruz Kolkata are close collaborators with Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp.org.in)

After the passing of the pandemic, a group in Metiabruz, found through a campaign under the Right to Information Act (RTI) that, in 2023, they were surprised to discover that the Annual Report 2021-22 of MHA declared (in section 15.41 of NPR) that

“In 2015, a few fields such as Name, Gender, Date and Place of Birth, Place of Residence and Father’s and Mother’s name were updated and Aadhaar, Mobile and Ration Card Numbers were collected”.

On the ground there was no exercise being carried out in their locality from the Registrar General of India (RGI), nor did any enumerator come to them for updating NPR and for collecting Aadhaar Number in 2015-16. So this event led them to file a series of RTIs, First Appeals and Second Appeals to the concerned government authorities to verify the legitimacy of the NPR process starting from 2010. Jitendranath Nandi addressing the press conference explained how they went about the investigation based on RTIs.

Abhijit Mitra, a member of Lokvidya Jan Andolan in Calcutta, addressing the conference online said the government’s motive of collecting citizens’ demographic and biometric data was suspicious. “The whole exercise is not transparent and is aimed at targetting minority communities.” He said the 21 questions under the NPR, which the home ministry declared to be voluntary, were seen as threatening privacy, leading to surveillance and further disenfranchisement of citizens through the NRC.

It appears therefore that a giant step towards NPR and NRC was taken quietly when information belonging to the Aadhaar database was linked with the NPR database. The only legal way of linking the two databases is by acquiring informed consent from every resident through an exercise similar to the Census. These developments pose a clear and present danger of no less magnitude than what triggered the CAA- NPR-NRC movement, though there is no conspicuous symbol of that danger visible to the public.

Citizens have to come together and prevent governmental overreach and harassment of the people.

Mumbai-based activist Javed Anand said the CAA-NPR-NRC had been part of the BJP-RSS agenda to polarise voters along religious lines to win elections by diverting attention from the real issues — price rise, the sad state of healthcare, education and employment.

“They have been claiming to make India a Hindu Rashtra. What we have been witnessing now is an alarming state of affiars in the country. Every other day we read about mosques being demolished and goons hurling saffron flags on churches,” he said.

Both organisations, CJP and BCS have appealed and that citizens be alert and vigilant, create wider awareness on the issues highlighted above. Nothing short of vibrant citizens’ movement can ensure that the governments are made accountable and transparent and act as a deterrent against such transgressions.

Details of Profiling of Christians may be read here:

Details of How the Union of India took a giant step towards both NPR & NRC in 2015 without obtaining informed consent may be read here

Related:

Will recently amended Birth Registration law be (mis)used to curb voting rights, even launch the dreaded NPR?

NPR database declared as ‘Critical Information Infrastructure’; needs to be updated soon: MHA

The post Policing & Profiling Citizens: Using Aadhar data to create an NPR, profiling Christians? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Indiastack is used to refer to the set of Application programming Interface (APIs) which are offering services to facilitate paperless communication. The APIs include Aadhar, eKYC, e-Aadhar and Digilocker. Just seven days back, last Tuesday, the Lok Sabha passed The Registration of Births & Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023on August 1st, 2023. This bill seeks to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. 

What should we know about the amendment and why?

Since Privacy is a fundamental right, and as the world gets more data driven, it is necessary for us to understand the infrastructure that is used by both the governments and other stakeholders to store, process and handle our data, Citizens’ Data. After all, the government is also an entity that is capable of infringing upon the rights of people, as we see and experience every day.  This amendment allows the government to build a central level data base of all deaths and births.

Therefore, it is important to understand the law that the government is using to build such infrastructure.  

What is the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969?

The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (the 1969 Act) seeks to register births and deaths and gives power to the Union Government to appoint a Registrar-General of India (RGI).

This law empowers the state government to appoint a Chief Registrar for the state, District Registrars for each District and Registrar for such local area as the state may deem fit.

While the Central, State and District Registrars mostly have coordinating functions, it is the local Registrars who have been entrusted with registering information on births and deaths.

How does the Registrar know about all the Births and Deaths from the area? The duty is entrusted on each of us, specifically and generally i.e., if a birth or death occurs in a household,  the head of the household, if it is in a hospital or such institution-the medical officer in charge or any authorised person, in case of a birth or death in a jail-the Jailer etc.

Due to the timing of the Act, the information in the registrars has not been made into one centralised database but has been kept decentralised. The Registrar was tasked with giving the certificates of registration to any persons who wants them. If you wanted a birth certificate, you would need go to the local registrar. 

What does the current amendment do?

The amendment-which has not yet been passed by the Rajya Sabha at the time of writing this article-if effective would mandate that the state Registrars share their database with the Registrar General of India (RGI).

Secondly, upon approval of the central government, this database can be made available to authorities dealing with preparation or maintenance of databases relating to the population register.

Now the issue of the National Population Register (NPR) linked to and in many ways a precursor to the contentious and dreaded National Register of Citizens (NRC) and therefore, given that no dicennial Census of India has been taken place since 2011, given that the NRC-NPR issue is a sword hanging over the heads of the Indian people, such steps, of the union government seeking data over births and deaths, could be a roundabout route to begin the process of creating an NPR.

Under the amended law, passed by the Lok Sabha –without any debate or referral to the Parliamentary Select Committee—it also means that Electoral rolls, Aadhaar Number, Ration Card, Passport, Driving Licence, Property Registration and such other databases at the National Level as may be notified and access/control of the data given to the union government[1] The list is therefore not exhaustive, and the government can empower itself and simply notify other databases in future in whose preparation, the births and deaths database could be used for.

The same powers have been given to the Chief Registrar of the State in collating all the information from the Registrars in the state.

Since the bill seeks to build a national level database, it also empowers the Registrar to enter the particulars of Death or Birth in electronic manner along with on paper.

The bill also empowers the local Registrar to collect the Aadhar numbers of the parents and whoever is informing the Registrar of the Birth, when he is entering the information of the birth. It also places duty on Adoptive Parents in case of non-institutional adoption, Single Parent in case of birth of a child to a single parent or unwed mother from her womb; the Biological Parent in case of Surrogacy and other such institutions in specific cases to inform the Registrar General of the Birth.[2]

The bill also states that the certificate obtained at birth, under this renewed act shall be used to prove the date and place of birth of a person who is born on or after the date of commencement of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023, for the purposes of— (a) admission to an educational institution; (b) issuance of a driving licence; (c) preparation of a voter list; (d) registration of a marriage; (e) appointment to a post in the Central Government or State Government or a local body or public sector undertaking or in any statutory or autonomous body under the Central Government or State Government; (f) issuance of a passport; (g) issuance of an Aadhaar number; and (h) any other purpose as may be determined by the Central Government.[3]

Changes and Shifts made by the Bill

Essentially, the bill makes three major changes. One is that it centralises the births and deaths database, which was not the case until now.

Second, the bill makes it possible for this central database to be used for preparation of other databases such as electoral rolls, property registration etc and additionally, the government has power to notify any other databases that could take help from this national database. Finally, the bill mandates that the birth certificate obtained from Registrar be used for purposes including admission to educational institutions, preparation of electoral rolls, the appointment to a government post or any other purpose as notified by the Central Government.

What are the Implications?

Right to Education:A bare reading of the bill and the act makes it seems clearly  like the bill cannot see the (marginalised) population that would be out of reach of the state’s regularising measures. For example, with respect to school admission, it conditions the right to education- a fundamental right-on the Birth Certificate for those who are born after the bill comes into force.

Right to Vote: While there is still some debate on whether Right to Vote is a fundamental right or a statutory right, there is consensus on its primordial nature for the democratic system to survive. While proof of age is important to decide whether one is eligible to vote, the emphasis on a birth certificate could curtail this right indirectly.

Data Privacy etc: The sharing of databases with any national authority just with the consent of central government or state government in cases of central and state databases respectively takes away any control the person has on their birth data. Moreover, there are no guidelines or directions within the amendment or the act for the government while it chooses which other database could take help from the national births’ database. This gives an all-encompassing power to the government-a delegation without any direction.

While it is important to make public services efficient, the (over) Centralisation of Data, which has been a project for the governments, has not really fetched results. The centralisation is also not the only problem. The crucial issue lies in the lack of concern for the exclusion (of peoples and populations marginalised) this bill legitimises and the absence of any provisions to fill in such gap.

(The author is a legal researcher with the organisation)

[1] Section 5, THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2023

[2] Section 7

[3] Section 13.

Related:

Census is not a priority for the Union government

Backdoor NPR-NRC? Parents DOB for KYC; great grandfather’s address for passport re-issue

Is CAA 2019 stealthily making its way into our lives?

The post Will recently amended Birth Registration law be (mis)used to curb voting rights, even launch the dreaded NPR? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has declared computer resources related Census and National Population Register (NPR) to be ‘Critical Information Infrastructure (CII)’ and ‘protected system’ under the Information Technology Act, 2000. This means that any tampering or unauthorised access to the data associated with Census applications, NPR database or the data centres of the Registrar General of India (RGI) will be punishable with ten years imprisonment.

Under the IT Act’s section 70, CII is defined as:

“computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.”

The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is the nodal agency for taking measures to protect the nation’s critical information infrastructure and is mandated to guard CIIs from “unauthorised access, modification, use, disclosure, disruption, incapacitation or distraction through coherent coordination, synergy and raising information security awareness among all stakeholders”, under the IT Act. The agency monitors national-level threats to CII.

Its functions include protection of CII, ensuring compliance, developing capabilities for real time warning system and facilitate sharing of information on emerging threats, cyber-attacks and so on.

It basically means that the NPR and Census database will be stored in duly protected computer systems that ought not to be tampered with and if tampered with it will amount to a serious offence with a punishment of up to 10 years and also a penalty. Undoubtedly, information collected during Census is imperative and any breach to it is a matter of national security and the MHA has –through a simple notification –now brought the controversial and un-tested process of the NPR —on the same footing as the Census.

The MHA notification may be read here:

Updating NPR

The Government prepared a National Population Register (NPR) of all the ‘usual residents’ in the country in 2010 by collecting specific information of each resident. This was under the United Progressive Alliance (I) government). The NPR was mandated through ‘Rules’ brought in in 2003 to the Citizenship Act, 1955. These Rules have not been extensively debated or discussed in Parliament. The previously conducted NPR in 2010 included the collection of biometric data of people which was then incorporated into the Aadhar database. However, the 2003 Rules nowhere mention that the NPR is or must be conducted periodically or after every 10 years.

In 2015, a few fields such as Name, Gender, Date and Place of Birth, Place of Residence and Father’s and Mother’s name were updated and Aadhaar, Mobile and Ration Card Numbers were collected.

The latest Annual report of MHA states that there is need to update NPR soon in order to “incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration”. Concerns about such fields being added have raised legitimate concerns of this being a backdoor exercise in collected documented data on individuals which may or will thereafter be used by the State to declare the citizenship of individuals ‘doubtful.’ The MHA had then resolved to update the NPR database in the entire country except the State of Assam along with the House listing Phase of Census 2021 during April to September, 2020. This process got delayed due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

For updating the NPR database, a three-pronged approach would be adopted. It will include

1. Self-updating wherein it is proposed to allow residents to update their own data fields after following some authentication protocols on a web portal,

2. Updating of NPR data in paper format and

3. Mobile mode.

As per the report, a pre-test on NPR updation was undertaken in the selected areas of all the States/UTs. It further clarifies that demographics and other particulars will be collected during this updation exercise and no documents or biometrics would be collected. The report however does not mention a specific date or time period for carrying out Census and NPR in the near future.

The Annual Report may be read here:

Census vs. NPR

NPR is a National Population Register which will contain the details of all the ‘usual residents’ of the country regardless of whether they are citizens or non-citizens of India. An electronic database of more than 119 crore usual residents of the country have already been created under NPR which was created in 2010 along with House listing and Housing Census 2010. The Government of India has also stated that the NPR Database has been updated in 2015-16 in all States/UTs (except Assam and Meghalaya) to make a comprehensive resident database.

The NPR process is being conducted under the Citizenship Act 1955(The Citizenship Amendment Act  2019) while Censes 2021 is as per Census Act 1948.

NPR is the first step towards creation of NRC. This is not only stated in the 2003 Rules. This has also been  admitted by the government in Parliament and the MHA’s Annual Report 2018- 19. The updation of the NPR can therefore be considered to be the first phase of the start of the NRC, a process that precedes a full-blown process of an All India NRC.

The MHA and GOI have faced stiff opposition from both the people and the state governments of non-BJP states, articulated at the recently concluded meeting on the NPR-Census. These objections related to four specific questions included in the NPR-NRC especially the one concerning parents’ places and dates of birth. Pushed into a corner, the Home Ministry was compelled to utter the truth, that  answering questions in the NPR is purely voluntary.

The NPR-NRC link is a reality

When the NPR data is collected, along with the Census Data, it seeks 21 separate categories of information.

As per Clause 4(3) of the 2003 Citizenship Rules, “For the purposes of preparation and inclusion in the Local Register of Indian Citizens, the particulars collected of every family and individual in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinized by the Local Registrar.”

The population register shall be verified and scrutinized by the local registrar. During the verification process, the particulars of “such individual” as shows Citizenship is doubtful shall entered by the local registrar with an appropriate remark “doubtful Citizen” in the list of the population register for further inquiry!

Every person will be given opportunity of being heard by the sub district or taluka registrar of Citizen Registration. The sub district or taluka registrar shall finalise his finding within 90 days of entry. Others are empowered to “raise objections” to you, your family or anyone else being included in the NPR-NRC list. Thereafter, the data is placed in the public domain for inviting any “objection”. The Order of the  Registrar is final: whether you or any person is included or excluded from the National Population  Register.

Therefore, one thing is clear: the NPR is the first stage of the All India NRC. Or the NPR is a back door  process to launch the All India NRC.

According to the official website of the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, the demographic particulars to be collected via NPR are listed as follows:

• Name of person

• Relationship to head of household

• Father’s name

• Mother’s name

• Spouse’s name (if married)

• Sex

• Date of Birth

• Marital status

• Place of birth

• Nationality (as declared)

• Present address of usual residence

• Duration of stay at present address

• Permanent residential address

• Occupation/Activity

• Educational qualification

There is a special note in the “nationality” section which reads “Nationality recorded is as declared by the respondent. This does not confer any right to Indian Citizenship”. There is also a special note under the “mother tongue” section, that says, “If you have reasons to suspect that in any area due to any organised movement, the mother tongue is not being truthfully returned, you should record the mother tongue as actually returned by the respondent and make a report to your supervisory officers for verification.”

A detailed document on Census vs. NPR and questions asked during these exercises may be read here.

Related:

CENSUS V/S NPR

Why the CAA+NPR+NRC is a toxic cocktail for everyone

NPR is Step One to NRC, don’t be fooled

Controversial questions removed from NPR?

The post NPR database declared as ‘Critical Information Infrastructure’; needs to be updated soon: MHA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has introduced a new approach for updating the National Population Register (NPR), which is self-updation through a web portal. The MHA’s Annual report of 2019-2020 makes mention of, among other things, the NPR.

The annual report states that the NPR was first conducted in 2010 under the provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2003. In 2015, a few fields such as Name, Gender, Date and Place of Birth, Place of Residence and Father’s and Mother’s name were updated and Aadhaar, Mobile and Ration Card Numbers were collected. The document justifies the need to update it by stating that changes due to birth, death and migration, need to be updated.

The annual report further states that the NPR will be updated in 3 ways, one of which is to update it by yourself on a web portal. The other two modes are by house to house enumeration in paper format and mobile mode.

It clearly states that no documents or biometrics will be collected during the updation. A report by The Hindu suggests that the online process will begin a month before the door-to-door surveys and residents will get a reference code that they could mention to the field enumerator at the time of her/his visit, a government official told the newspaper. The details of the respondent would get displayed on a mobile application developed in-house for conducting the Census exercise but no “biometrics or documents” would be collected. These details would then be stored in the system for future use, reports The Hindu.

The annual report states that a pre-test for NPR has been conducted in all states and Union Territories, except Assam. “The demographic and other particulars of each family and individual are to be collected/ updated during the updation exercise of NPR,” says the annual report.

The Cabinet has approved expenditure of Rs. 3,941.35 crore for NPR updation.

NPR schedule

Census India has uploaded the houselisting schedule 2021, which is the enumeration done as a first phase of Census and was supposed to be carried out in April 2020, along with NPR. While the houselisting schedule has been duly uploaded and seems to be ready for use, the NPR schedule has not been officially declared by the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner. It is pertinent to note here that even the houselisting schedule for 2021 was finalised in January 2020 but no official announcement has been made regarding the NPR schedule.

In January 2020, Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner did release the NPR instruction manual directed towards guiding enumerators and state as well as district coordinators for conducting the updation of NPR. It was found that NPR 2020 was seeking information like permanent address, duration of state and place of last residence, details of father, mother and spouse, Aadhaar number, mobile no., Voter ID no., driving license no.

Further, under details of father and mother, their name, date of birth and place of birth is being asked, if they are not already enumerated in the same household. The NPR instruction manual also states that most of the NPR schedule will be pre-filled and one will only have to verify the same.

In February 2020, the Nitish Kumar government of Bihar had demanded that the Centre carry out NPR as per the 2010 schedule and refused to carry out NPR with questions regarding place of birth of mother and father.

After the Census office released the instruction manual, making it clear what questions will be asked during NPR, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) had prepared a detailed document on how to deal with enumerators who would be collecting both census houselisting and NPR data at the same time. The document may be accessed here.

After a national level uproar against questions regarding the place of birth of father and mother, the MHA had taken a stand in Parliament that answering questions in the NPR will be voluntary. However, the NPR section of the Census website still states, “It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR”. Thus, the government’s stand on conducting NPR has not been quite confusing and one expects the central government to clarify its stand before it starts asking people to start filling up NPR schedules.

As many as 13 states and Union Territories had opposed carrying out the exercise of updating the NPR, as the same was closely associated with the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC). Although the ruling government denied the link between NPR and NRC, the law that is already in place did not back their claims. The Citizenship Rules, 2003 clearly state that NPR is the first step to creating NRC.

NPR is a National Population Register which will contain the details of all the ‘usual residents’ of the country regardless of whether they are citizens or non-citizens of India. The electronic database of more than 119 crore usual residents of the country has already been created under NPR which was created in 2010 along with Houselisting and Housing Census 2010.

As has been contended by people opposing Citizenship Amendment Act, along with NRC and NPR, the NPR is not a standalone exercise but has to be seen as an advance towards NRC which will then use CAA to incarcerate millions for not having documents to prove their citizenship. This deadly combination has been explained in detail here.

Related:

NPR 2020: What does it want to know?

Census v/s NPR

Census-NPR field trials to begin soon?   

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The Field Trials for the first phase of Census and National Population Register (NPR) are on the cards, as reported by The Hindu. The Census houselisting and NPR was scheduled to begin in April 2020, but the same got derailed and delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the government, during the recently concluded budget session, said that no definite dates have been decided for the Census-NPR exercise, a government official from the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) told the newspaper that they are planning to conduct pre-tests or field trials through the app in one block each of every district, which is expected to cover 50 to 60 households. It is reported that the  app will contain questionnaires on house listing and housing census and the NPR.

“The dates for conducting the Census exercise have not been finalised yet. But the enumerators will have to be trained in using the app. Many enumerators are young schoolteachers who are expected to use the app instead of the paper schedule [form]. There will be incentives for the electronic form,” the unnamed official told The Hindu.

On February 9, Vivek Joshi, RGI and Census Commissioner of India, chaired a virtual meeting of the Directors of Census Operations of all States to review the preparations for the coming Census where the field trials using the app were discussed, stated the news report.

The official further said that instruction manuals for enumerators and other Census functionaries have been prepared, and that the app has been improvised after 2019 trials for conducting field trial afresh. He said they are waiting for direction from RGI.

As many as 13 states and Union Territories had opposed to carrying out the exercise of updating the NPR, as the same was closely associated with the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC). Although, the ruling government denied the link between NPR and NRC, the law that is already in place did not back their claims. The Citizenship Rules, 2003 clearly state that NPR is the first step to creating NRC.

The updation of NPR was justified by the Centre stating that the first NPR was prepared in 2010 and was updated in 2015 and hence, it needs to be updated again. 

NPR is a National Population Register which will contain the details of all the ‘usual residents’ of the country regardless of whether they are citizens or non-citizens of India. The electronic database of more than 119 crore usual residents of the country has already been created under NPR which was created in 2010 along with Houselisting and Housing Census 2010.

The questions different from previous NPRs were date and place of birth of mother and father, and these were the ones that invoked political outrage. As many states raised their voices against inclusion of these questions, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declared that the questions asked in the NPR would be voluntary and hence, one can choose to not tell the government where their parents were born.

As has been contended by people opposing Citizenship Amendment Act, along with NRC and NPR, the NPR is not a standalone exercise but has to be seen as an advance towards NRC which will then use CAA to incarcerate millions for not having documents to prove their citizenship. This deadly combination has been explained in detailed here.

Related:

Government tries to dodge questions about NRIC, says no decision yet

2020 List of Honour: 10 Anti-CAA-NPR-NRC protesters vilified in Delhi

Anti CAA protesters get bail: Mumbai

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“It has been clarified at various levels in Government time and again that till now no decision has been taken to create National Register of Indian citizen,” said the government in response to recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) with respect to apprehensions surrounding the upcoming census, and the possibility of data collected for the National Population Register (NPR) being used instead to create a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) along the lines of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

The government further submitted, “All individual-level information collected in Census are confidential. In Census, only aggregated data are released at various administrative levels. Like the earlier Censuses, wide publicity measures would be taken up for creating proper awareness among public so as to conduct and complete the Census 2021 successfully. Questionnaires for Census along with that of NPR have been tested at Pre-test conducted successfully across the country,” reported The Indian Express. 

The Committee headed by Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Anand Sharma, had in February 2020 raised these concerns even as demonstrations against CAA-NRC-NPR across the country. The Action Taken report was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The protests came to an abrupt end due to the pandemic and the lockdown last year, but the concerns remained, especially with respect to information that will be gathered during the Census. In fact, it was discovered in August 2020, that some controversial questions such as those related to date and place of birth of parents, and mother tongue, were removed, purportedly in wake of widespread apprehensions.

SabrangIndia had previously reported on how NPR in the new format was trying to gather more personal data than the 2010 version. We had reported on how special notes had been made about nationality and mother tongue in the instruction manual. There is a special note in the “nationality” section which reads “Nationality recorded is as declared by the respondent. This does not confer any right to Indian Citizenship”. There is also a special note under the “mother tongue” section, that says, “If you have reasons to suspect that in any area due to any organised movement, the mother tongue is not being truthfully returned, you should record the mother tongue as actually returned by the respondent and make a report to your supervisory officers for verification.”

Meanwhile, the government appears disinclined to use Aadhaar data in the upcoming Census. It has submitted, “Aadhaar number has been developed as a separate database which is being used only for de-duplication purpose and authentication of beneficiaries of various Government schemes.”

Related:

Controversial questions removed from NPR?
NPR 2020: What does it want to know?

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The National Population Register (NPR) a process that appears to have been conflated with the Census, allegedly in a sinister bid to set apart people the regime views as outsiders, is now being given a makeover in a purported attempt to score political brownie points in upcoming elections in two key states.

According to the official website of the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, the demographic particulars to be collected via NPR are listed as follows:

• Name of person

• Relationship to head of household

• Father’s name

• Mother’s name

• Spouse’s name (if married)

• Sex

• Date of Birth

• Marital status

• Place of birth

• Nationality (as declared)

• Present address of usual residence

• Duration of stay at present address

• Permanent residential address

• Occupation/Activity

• Educational qualification

It is noteworthy that date and place of birth of parents, as well as questions about mother tongue have been omitted from this list. However, one cannot ignore that the point about nationality still says ‘as declared’ as if to snidely cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the respondent’s claim. It is also noteworthy that revealing one’s Aadhar number remains optional.

SabrangIndia had previously reported on how NPR in the new format was trying to gather more personal data than the 2010 version. We had reported on how special notes had been made about nationality and mother tongue in the instruction manual. There is a special note in the “nationality” section which reads “Nationality recorded is as declared by the respondent. This does not confer any right to Indian Citizenship”. There is also a special note under the “mother tongue” section, that says, “If you have reasons to suspect that in any area due to any organised movement, the mother tongue is not being truthfully returned, you should record the mother tongue as actually returned by the respondent and make a report to your supervisory officers for verification.”

The NPR along with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), had allegedly formed the three-point divisive agenda of the regime and had drawn sharp criticism and led to nationwide protests for months starting late 2019 and coming to an abrupt halt only when the Covid-19 outbreak necessitated a nationwide lockdown. In fact, 11 states including Jharkhand, Telangana, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal and Delhi had passed resolutions against the NPR. In fact, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had gone on record to say that NPR cannot be allowed in his state in the form that included the controversial questions and can only be permitted if conducted as per the 2011 format.

In light of this and the upcoming elections in Bihar and West Bengal, it is clear that the decision to quietly revert to the old format was taken with political considerations in mind. It is no secret that Mamata Banerjee has been a vocal opponent of the NPR-NRC-CAA, but Nitish Kumar has been no pushover either. Kumar enjoys an unparalleled clout in Bihar and his support is key to maintaining control in the state.

Bihar goes to polls in October-November 2020 and BJP president JP Nadda has already announced Nitish Kumar as Chief Ministerial candidate. The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats and at present an alliance comprising the Janata Dal -United (JD-U), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) along with five independents have the majority.

West Bengal is expected to go to polls in 2021. This state has been coveted by the BJP for decades and political fates of contenders remain volatile amidst a history of violent attacks on rivals, communal conflagrations and allegations of foreigners infiltrating into the country through the state’s allegedly porous borders. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already been targeted many times with communal slurs for her unwavering support of minorities.

Related:

Bihar: Remove new questions; update NPR as per 2010 data

Fourth in line, Bengal passes anti-CAA resolution

NPR is Step One to NRC, don’t be fooled

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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which was all set to commence the Census Phase I and the udate of the National Population Register (NPR) has now been compelled to postpone both the exercises “until further orders” owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The pandemic has brought the entire country to a halt, with the Prime Minister announcing a 21 day complete lockdown across India. The intention is to avoid social contact among people in order to contain the spread of the disease, the cases of which are constantly increasing in the country. In such a situation, it was expected that the MHA would suspend NPR and Census exercise which requires door to door enumeration, it was only a matter of when.

A press release issued by Press Information Bureau states, “Keeping in view the above, the first phase of Census 2021 and updation of NPR, which was to begin on various dates decided by the State/UT governments beginning 1 st  April 2020 and various related field activities, are postponed until further orders.”

The official twitter handle of Census Office also posted a tweet along with a press note detailing the same.
 

In view of COVID-19 outbreak & nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic, the first phase of #CensusIndia2021, that is, the house listing operation & NPR updation is postponed until further order.@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @PIB_India @PIBHomeAffairs pic.twitter.com/IFzcRRQnkQ

— Census India 2021 (@CensusIndia2021) March 25, 2020

The complete press release may be read here: 

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The government of Jharkhand is the latest to pass a resolution against the National Population Register (NPR) demanding that it be conducted as per the previous 2010 format. It has also asked the central government to scrap the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The resolution was passed via voice vote.

The 2010 NPR had fewer questions and did not require information on the place of birth of one’s parents. It also did not ask for mobile number, passport number or Aadhaar number. Several privacy concerns have been raised about this. While Delhi, Bihar, Punjab, Kerala and West Bengal and many other states have passed similar resolutions, there is a concern about conducting the exercise amidst the Covid-19 pandemic even among states that have not passed a resolution against NPR or NRC. However, no official announcement has been made against scrapping the exercise or postponing it so far.

Meanwhile in Tamil Nadu AIADMK head honchos, Chief Minister and party co-coordinator, Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister and party coordinator, O. Panneerselvam have requested the central government not to include too many personal questions in the NPR. Addressing a joint press conference, the duo, often called EPS and OPS, said, “Details regarding mother tongue, family head’s father, mother, their place of birth, date of birth and details like that, mobile phone numbers, Aadhaar details, voter ID and driving licence details should be avoided in the 2020 census.” 

Related:

Delhi Assembly passes resolution against NPR

Tribals urge Odisha CM to pass resolution against CAA-NPR-NRC

Bihar: Remove new questions; update NPR as per 2010 data

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