Draft bill to allow for updation of NPR

Subject : Governance

Context : Government of India may bring Bill to allow NPR updation via birth and death database.

Concept :

According to the proposed bill, the the Registrar General of India to maintain a database on births and deaths and use that to update the National Population Register (NPR) will likely be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament.
The data will also be used for updating electoral rolls, the Aadhar database, ration cards, passports and driving licenses.

Proposed amendments

It also proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act1969 that will enable the Registrar General of India (RGI) to “maintain the database of registered births and deaths at the national level.
It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level and integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI). The amendments will imply that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.
It is mandatory for medical institutions to provide “a certificate as to the cause of death to the Registrar and a copy to the nearest relative in such form as may be prescribed”.

Civil Registration System

Civil Registration System (CRS) in India is the unified process of continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the vital events (births, deaths, stillbirths) and characteristics thereof.
The data generated through a complete and up-to-date CRS is essential for socio-economic planning.

National Population Register

NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country
A usual resident for the purposes of 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.
Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
It is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the
The NPR was first collected in 2010 and then updated in 2015.
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.

NPR and NRC

According to Citizenship Rules 2003, NPR is the first step towards compilation of a National Register of Citizens (NRC). After a list of residents is created (i.e., NPR), a nationwide NRC could go about verifying the citizens from that list.
However, unlike the NRC, the NPR is not a citizenship enumeration drive as it records even a foreigner staying in a locality for more than six months.

Census and NPR

The census involves a detailed questionnaire – there were 29 items to be filled up in the 2011 census – aimed at eliciting the particulars of every person, including age, sex, marital status, children, occupation, birthplace, mother tongue, religion, disability and whether they belonged to any Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.
On the other hand, the NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.
The census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948.
The NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.