NPR, Census 2021 Date ‘Still Not Finalised,’ Says RGI: Report

States reman divided on CAA, NRC and NPR

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

In response to an RTI filed by The Hindu, the official of the Registrar General of India (RGI) said on 17 November that the questionnaire of NPR is “being finalised” and the information about the expected date of first phase of Census 2021 is “not available”.

The Hindu filed a Right To Information (RTI) seeking information about the expected date for the first phase of Census 2021 and an update of the The National Population Register (NPR). Both the exercises were earlier supposed to be carried out from 1 April to 20 September 2020 but were inadvertently postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Census 2021 was scheduled to be held in two phases, during April-September 2020 and then, in February 2021. The Census was supposed to have its reference date as 1 March 2021, and for Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand it was 1 October 2020.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) remarked that there was need to update the NPR to “incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration” and “Aadhaar is individual data whereas NPR contains family wise data.” The MHA proposed to collect details on additional questions such as “date and place of birth of parents” in the NPR to “facilitate back end data processing and making the data items of date and place of birth complete for all household[s]”, reported The Hindu

While the NPR update witnessed opposition from as many as 13 States and Union Territories due to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) act that had seen nation-wide outrage, the Census process received full support.