In a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi today, the central government has allocated a fund of Rs 8500 crore to update the National Population Register. The National Population Register, as the name itself suggests, is a database where the identities of all people living in India are registered. NPR’s database contains both people’s demographic and biometric details. However, sharing a press conference after the cabinet meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said that in the NPR to be held in 2020, no documents, proof or biometric data will be collected from the people.
Only through the National Population Register, it can be known how many people live in a country.
As the officials say, NPR contains the list of usual residents living in India. Now, What does it mean by Usual Residents? Well, officials say people living in any area of India for at least 6 months are called Usual Residents. The government has also said that all usual residents must participate in NPR.
NPR was first brought in the second term of the UPA Government, while the last time it was updated in 2015. The Registrar General and Census Commissioner maintain NPR.
The Government of India has now decided that the National Population Register will be updated again, while its work will start from April and September 2020. Talking about its Implementation, The National Population Register going to implement in all the state and union territories of India except Assam.
Although there is no official confirmation of this, some people believe that updating the National Population Register is the first step of NRC.
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