What Connects The NPR, NRIC And CENSUS – Economics – Free PDF Download

CURRENT AFFAIR  

• As protests spread all across the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 and the proposed National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), West Bengal and Kerala suspended work related to the preparation and update of the National Population Register (NPR) in their respective States.
• The NPR, a register of residents of the country with demographic and biometric details, was supposed to be prepared between April 2020 and September 2020 ahead of the Census slated for 2021.
• Preliminary work on the NPR has begun in several States. In Bengal, civil rights activists had been protesting against the compilation of the NPR alleging that it had nothing to with the Census, but the “first step to initiate the National Register of Citizens” in the State.
• According to Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (which was inserted in 2004), the Central Government may compulsorily register every citizen of India and issue a national identity card to him; and it may maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens.

BACKGROUND

• The Union Cabinet approved a proposal to conduct Census 2021 and update the National Population Register (NPR).

Documents requires that would help establish citizenship  

• It has not yet prescribed rules for the sort of documentary proof that would be required to prove citizenship.
• The government says any document that shows date of birth or place of birth, or both, will be sufficient.

National Population Register (NPR)

• The NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country. Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
• A usual resident for the purposes of NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more, and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
• Once the details are recorded in every local (village or ward), sub-district (tehsil or taluk), district and State level, there will be a population register at each of these levels. Together, they constitute the National Population Register.

Legal basis for the NPR  

• While the census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948, the NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
• Section 14A was inserted in the Citizenship Act, 1955, in 2004, providing for the compulsory registration of every citizen of India and the issue of a “national identity card” to him or her.
• The NPR is the first step towards establishing the NRIC.

Link between the NPR and Aadhaar  

• Better targeting and delivery of benefits and services under the government was one of the early objectives of the NPR.
• Data captured for NPR would be sent to UIDAI for “de-duplication”. In case of discrepancy between Aadhaar and NPR data, the latter would prevail.

Relationship between the NPR and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act  

• There is no direct link. But remarks by the Home Minister that the CAA would be followed by the NRC has given rise to fears that when people are excluded from the final citizenship register, the CAA may help non-Muslims take the CAA route to apply for citizenship, and leave Muslims with no option.
• Legally, the states have no say in implementing or ruling out NPR. However, given that the manpower is drawn from the states, the defiance could potentially result in a showdown.

OBJECTIVES

• The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every “usual resident” in the country.
• Strengthening security
• Improvement in targeting of beneficiaries

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