NEW DELHI: Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar (Retd), chairman of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC), on Wednesday launched an official web portal to promote public participation and facilitate the scientific collection of data on demographic changes.
The portal is fully operational and open to the public, allowing Central Ministries and Departments, State and Union Territory governments, NGOs and individuals to submit inputs and share data on unnatural demographic changes, their “causes and underlying factors behind these changes”.
The Union Home Ministry said the submissions would assist the Committee in analysing demographic changes, identifying their underlying causes and recommending an operational mechanism for the legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.
The ministry constituted the HLCDC on May 26, 2026, to comprehensively examine the demographic changes, including those attributed to illegal immigration. The Committee will study factors such as variations in fertility rates, cross-border movements, economic opportunities and other socio-environmental conditions.
It will also examine abnormal settlement patterns, planned migration and other factors contributing to demographic changes. According to an official source, the Committee will analyse structural population changes among religious and social communities.
The HLCDC has been tasked with recommending a structured and permanent operational mechanism for the legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants residing in the country. It will also suggest an appropriate institutional mechanism to strengthen border management, population stabilisation and identification systems for sustained monitoring of demographic trends.
In addition, the Committee is empowered to propose a comprehensive policy framework to improve coordination between the Central and State governments on illegal immigration and the resulting demographic imbalance. The official statement said the Committee could also recommend any other measures it considered appropriate to address challenges arising from demographic changes, including those caused by illegal immigration.
Detention, deportation of illegal immigrants
The Home Ministry said the submissions would assist the panel in analysing demographic changes, identifying underlying causes and recommending an operational mechanism for the legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.
