India to document 'usual residents' across country

While the National Register of Citizen (NRC) in Assam is still mired in controversy, the Indian government has decided to go for a countrywide documentation of persons "usually residing" in India.

"In pursuance of sub-rule (4) of rule 3 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, the central government hereby decides to prepare and update the Population Register," said a notification issued by Vivek Joshi, registrar general of Citizen Registration and Census Commissioner.

The notification also said, "…the field work for house-to-house enumeration throughout the country except Assam for collection of information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of local registrar shall be undertaken between the April 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020."

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The National Population Register (NPR) is likely to be the basis for preparing the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), a pan-India version of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC), a Home Ministry official said.

For the purpose of NPR, a "usual resident" is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.

The NPR is being prepared at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship Rules 2003.

It is mandatory for every "usual resident" of India to register in the NPR.

The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every "usual resident" in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.

The reason for excluding Assam is because of the ongoing exercise of NRC in the state.

The final draft NRC published in Assam on July 30 last year had sparked a major controversy over the exclusion of 40.7 lakh people from it.

The draft included the names of 2.9 crore people of the 3.29 crore applicants. In addition to those excluded, the names of over a lakh people were left out in a list published last month.

The final list of the NRC in Assam will be published on August 31.