REGISTER OF INDIGENOUS INHABITANTS OF NAGALAND (RIIN)

REGISTER OF INDIGENOUS INHABITANTS OF NAGALAND (RIIN)

Subject: Governance

Context: An apex body of Naga tribes has asked the Nagaland government not to be hasty with the exercise to prepare the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN), seen as a variant of Assam’s National Register of Citizens.

Concept:

• Launched in July 2019.
• The objective is to prevent outsiders from obtaining fake indigenous certificates for seeking jobs and benefits of government schemes.
• The RIIN will be the master list of all indigenous inhabitants of the state.
• The RIIN list will be based on “an extensive survey”.
• It will involve official records of indigenous residents from rural and (urban) wards and would be prepared under the supervision of the district administration.

Concern

• Locals are apprehensive of “dreadful consequences” if the “advocates of RIIN” implement the identification process with December 1, 1963 – the day Nagaland attained statehood – as the cut-off date for determining the “permanent residents” of the State.
• This date is likely to exclude Nagas who have come from beyond the boundaries of Nagaland.
• They also fear that the non-indigenous Nagas could be treated as “illegal immigrants” and their lands and property confiscated.