What is the National Population Register (NPR)?
The NPR is a register of usual residents of the country being prepared at the local, sub-district, district, state and national level under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issues of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
Who is a usual resident?
Under the NPR, it is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register. A usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.
What is the purpose of the NPR?
The purpose of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident of India. This database would contain biometric and demographic details. Aadhaar, mobile number, driving licence, PAN, voter ID details and Indian passport numbers are among the details that will be collected from all usual residents of India. Sharing of Aadhaar is, however, voluntary in view of the SC ruling in this regard.
What are the demographic details needed?
These are the details that were saught for NPR in 2010.
When was the NPR data last collected?
Data for the NPR was collected in 2010 during the collection of data for the Census of India 2011. In a door-to-door survey, it was updated in 2015. The digitisation of the updated information has been completed.
When is the NPR being updated?
NPR data will now be updated along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April-September 2020 in all states barring Assam. The West Bengal and Kerala governments have, however, stayed all activities relating to the preparation and update of the NPR after the amended Citizenship Act was passed.
Why is Assam excluded?
Assam had recently undertaken the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise aimed at identifying and detaining illegal immigrants.
How is the NPR different from the NRC?
The NRC will only contain the details of citizens of India while the NPR will also include details of foreigners residing in India for a period of six months or more.
How can the NPR data be accessed?
The NPR data will be accessible to the relevant user through password protected protocols. It will not be put in the public domain. The government says the data will be used to enhance the targeting of beneficiary-oriented schemes and will have implications of improving internal security.