Explained: NPR and the need for a comprehensive national population database

By Dr. Rattan Chand

The Government has been conducting many statistical exercises in the country to collect different data-sets relating to population. One such operation is the conduct of decennial Population Census, the last one was conducted in the year 2011. Presently, there is much talk about the National Population Register (NPR) which is a Register of usual residents of the country and is prepared at the 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. Registration is mandatory for every usual resident of India who has resided in an area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more. The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. Like in the population census, the NPR database contains particulars like name, relationship to head of household, father’s name, mother’s name, spouse’s name, sex, date of Birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality (as declared), present address of usual residence, duration of stay at present address, Permanent residential address, occupation/activity, educational qualification etc. More items can be added or deleted in the Register depending upon the need. Last time, the data for National Population Register was collected in the year 2010 along with the house listing phase of Population Census 2011. The updation of this data was done in the year 2015 by conducting door to door survey. 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/UTs except Assam.

Another data collection exercise is the conduct of Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC). The last SECC was conducted during 2011-13 after the 2011 Population Census. One wonders as to why these overlapping data sets are being collected wasting human and financial resources. It is not that the Population Census cannot have the information collected in the Population Register or in the SECC.

The problem is that the Population Census is carried out under the Census Act, 1948 which stipulates that the Government must keep individual’s personal information confidential and this cannot be shared with anyone. On the contrary, all the personal information given in the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) is open for use by Government departments to grant and / or restrict benefits to households. The individual level information from SECC can be shared in transparent manner with households, Panchayats and Gram Sabha for verification. Accordingly, we see that SECC data is being used extensively for targeting beneficiaries under various welfare schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, etc.

Had the Census Act allowed use of individual information for targeting the beneficiaries and for individual identification, there was perhaps no need to collect information under the SECC or National Population Register, separately.

We also have voter survey to issue election voter identity cards to eligible Indian resident aged 18 years and above and Aaadhar Number issued to the eligible population.

One wonders how many departments collect different types of information under different laws. The authorities must put their head together to have one data base of all residents which can be used for policy, planning, national identity including voter ID, and for welfare purposes. There is need to examine all the laws and rules under which the information is being collected and come out with one comprehensive law which should regulate data collection and its dissemination including the purposes for which individual’s information can be used.

Many activists may not be in favour of having comprehensive population data base saying it encroaches upon the privacy of the individual. However, the need of the hour is to have a sound population data base, within the framework of the Indian Constitution, which can be used for various purposes including national security, identity, welfare schemes and in the interest of saving national resources.

For any database to be useful it is must that it is dynamic, updated regularly and the process of updation is simple. There are four components of population change which are required for a database to be dynamic. These are births, deaths, in-migration and out-migration. If these components are captured concurrently then we can know the exact population of any area almost on real time basis. One of the advantage of such data set would also be that we can have fertility, mortality and migration rates even at district and lower level. At present, we get such estimates from the sample surveys only for larger States but not for smaller States and Union Territories.

The author is Director, EGROW Foundation. Views expressed are the author’s own.