No NPR notification yet, but Budget allocates funds. Will NPR, precursor to NRC, be conducted?
Rs 6,000 crore for NPR and Census 2027; NPR, under Census rules, is supposed to be conducted with Houselisting phase of Census
The Budget has marginally raised the share of the social spend in the total expenditure, but the new schemes are largely aimed at the top tier in their respective fields. (PTI) Although enumeration for the National Population Register (NPR) has not been notified yet, the Union Budget 2026-27 has allocated Rs 6,000 crore for NPR and Census 2027. The NPR, under the Census rules, is supposed to be conducted with the Houselisting phase of the Census. The Houselisting phase has been notified to be carried out between April 1 and September 30 this year. There is no mention of NPR in this notification.
Under the head of “Census, Survey and Statistics/Registrar General of India (RGI)”, the Union Budget has allocated Rs 6,000 crore, of which Rs 218 crore is capital expenditure. The Budget describes this allocation as including “provisions for the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India and various schemes of RGI including National Population Register (NPR) and expenditure on Census, 2027”.
The NPR, which is the enumeration of the usual residents of the country, has been a controversial exercise. It ran into rough weather in 2019 following the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Parliament as it was seen paving the way for the conduct of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which Opposition leaders alleged was being proposed to deprive minorities of citizenship.
In response to public protests, while several states passed resolutions opposing the exercise in their respective Assemblies, the Centre itself put it oback burnerburner, even though the Union Cabinet had approved Rs 3,941.35 crore for the NPR exercise then. It was then supposed to happen in 2020 along with the housing listing phase of the Census, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
With respect to the allocation for NPR in this Union Budget, a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official said that no decision had been taken on conducting the NPR exercise yet. “There is no notification for the conduct of NPR. The allocation is in line with what has been made in previous budgets since 2020-21. The allocation has been made keeping in mind that if and as and when the government decides to conduct the NPR, the funds are there,” the official said.
NPR enshrined in law
The NPR is the precursor to the NRC and the same stands enshrined in law. The NPR is governed by the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The rules were framed under sub-sections (1) and (3) of Section 18 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
As per Rule 3, which provides for NRC, and sub-rule (4), “The Central Government may, by an order issued in this regard, decide a date by which the Population Register shall be prepared by collecting information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of Local Registrar.”
Sub-rule (5) of the Rule then says, “The Local Register of Indian citizens shall contain details of persons after due verification made from the Population Register.”
Under Rule 4, titled “Preparation of the National Register of Indian Citizens”, sub-rule 4 says, “During the verification process, particulars of such individuals, whose Citizenship is doubtful, shall be entered by the Local Registrar with appropriate remark in the Population Register for further enquiry and in case of doubtful Citizenship, the individual or the family shall be informed in a specified proforma immediately after the verification process is over.”
Under Rule 7, the head of the family is supposed to provide correct information to enumerators during the NPR exercise, failing which he shall be penalised (under Rule 17) with a fine extending up to Rs 1,000.
The data for NPR was first collected in 2010 along with the house listing phase of the 2011 Census. In 2015, this data was further updated in a door-to-door survey.
However, with the Narendra Modi government in 2016 picking out Aadhaar as the key vehicle for the transfer of government benefits and putting its weight behind it, the NPR took a backseat. Through a notification on August 3, 2019, the Registrar General of India (RGI) revived it. The RGI has already prepared the NPR proforma and the digitisation of the 2015 data is complete.
Protests
The decision had come against the backdrop of a nationwide stir against the CAA, the proposed nationwide NRC, and the NRC process in Assam that excluded 19 lakh people. This exacerbated anxiety around the idea of citizenship in the country. At the time, Union Home Minister Amit Shah repeatedly said there would be a nationwide NRC. He also tried to explain a certain “chronology” in which the CAA would come first and the NRC would follow.
However, following protests against the CAA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in December 2019 that the government had not yet decided on conducting the NRC. It was a stand that Shah and the MHA subsequently reiterated on multiple occasions.
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