The National Population Register

The Ministry of Home Affairs annual report underlines the need to update the National Population Register (NPR) across the country.

With the government likely to bring a Bill to amend the Registration of Birth and Deaths Act for centralised data management, the Home Ministry, in its latest annual report, has underlined the need to update the National Population Register (NPR) database across the country, except Assam.
The ministry’s annual report for 2021-22 said due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the work of NPR updation and other related field activities got postponed.
For updating the NPR database, a three-pronged approach will be adopted.
It will include self-updating wherein residents will update their data after following some authentication protocols, updating NPR data in paper format and mobile mode.

It is a Register of the usual residents of the country.
A usual resident, for NPR, is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
History
NPR was first done in 2010 and was later updated in 2015 when it was linked with Aadhar.
Legal Backing

The NPR is prepared under the 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.
Preparation
It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National levels.
Objective
To create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.
Provisions
Every usual resident of India must register in the NPR.
National Registration Authority
The Registrar General India shall act as the “National Registration Authority”.
Significance
NPR data helps identify the demographics of actual residents who will be direct beneficiaries of any schemes launched in the area.

About
National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register prepared after the conduct of the Census of 1951 in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein.
The Ministry
This NRC was prepared under a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs directive.
Features

The NRC was published only once in 1951, and since then, it has not been updated until recently.
It has been updated in Assam only for now, and the government plans to update it nationally as well.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), was notified in 2019 and came into force in 2020.
Objectives:

The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian — from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution in their respective countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
Exceptions:

The Act does not apply to tribal areas of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya because of being included in the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.
It also does not apply to the areas under the Inner Limit notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, which will also be outside the Act’s purview.
Reduced period:
It relaxes the period of stay in India for being eligible for citizenship by naturalisation from 11 to 5 years.
Cancellation of OCI registration:

The Act provides that the central government may cancel the registration of Overseas Citizen Of India (OCIs) on specific grounds:
If the OCI has registered through fraud, or
If, within five years of registration, the OCI has been sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more, or
If it becomes necessary in the interest of sovereignty and security of India.

Content Source: Indian Express