National Population Register to be updated, Cabinet approves funds

Tribune Web Desk
New Delhi, December 24

The Union Cabinet announced Census 2021 and National Population Register on Tuesday, even as it continued to face criticism about its proposed  National Register of Citizens.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, who made the announcement at a press conference on Tuesday, said that the census exercise and NPR exercises would be conducted for six months between April and September 2020.

“Lakhs of people will be involved in conducting the door-to-door exercise,” he said.

He said the central government has made a headcount exercise, to be conducted in February 2021, “easier using technology”.

“The census form is a long one, and takes up to an hour-and-a-half to fill up. This time, we will use an app. Whatever is filled in the app will be registered,” he said.

He also spoke about the NPR, conducted for the first time in 2010.  He claimed it was "self-declaration", and there was “no need for proof or biometrics” for exercise.

He claimed the NPR would help benefit targeted schemes such as Ayushman Bharat. "It would help identify the real beneficiaries," he said. 

States had already brought out a notification, and have already begun the "training those who would be involved in the exercise".

Officials said the cabinet had approved funds to the tune of over Rs 3,941.35 crore for updating the National Population Register.

Earlier, some officials had quoted the census funds figure as that of the NPR. The NPR exercise is a list of "usual residents" of the country.

Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting door-to-door survey. The digitisation of the updated information has been completed.

Now it has been decided to update the National Population Register along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April to September 2020 in all the states/union territories, except Assam.

The NPR is a list of "usual residents" of the country. A "usual resident" is defined for the purposes of NPR 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.

Read also: What is National Population Register

The data for National Population Register was collected in 2010 along with the house-listing phase of census of India 2011.

The data was updated in 2015 by conducting door-to-door survey.

The digitisation of the updated information has been completed.

Now it has been decided to update the National Population Register along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 during April to September 2020 in all the states/union territories except Assam, according to the website of the Office of the Registrar General, and Census Commissioner.

A gazette notification to this effect was issued in August this year.

The NPR will be prepared at the local (village/sub-Town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) 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. With PTI

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