6 days ago
India’s 2027 Census Questions Raise Fears of National Register
India’s next census will ask people more questions than earlier censuses.
Some questions ask about a person’s parents, including where and when they were born.
These questions were originally connected to the National Population Register.
Critics worry the information could later be used to check who is an Indian citizen.
They are especially concerned that Muslims and other targeted communities could face extra investigations.
The government has not explained publicly why it needs so much additional information, according to people quoted in the article.
Census information is legally protected from being used in government action.
However, a lawyer says officials could still misuse detailed data or change the law.
Opposition parties and activists fear the questionnaire could revive protests over the National Register of Citizens.
The 2027 census questionnaire includes 12 questions not asked in the previous census.
Ten of the new questions were previously intended for the National Population Register.
The questionnaire seeks details about respondents’ parents, including birthplaces, birth dates and religion.
Critics fear the information could support citizenship investigations or a National Register of Citizens.
Census data has stronger legal privacy protections than National Population Register data, but lawyers question whether they are sufficient.
- Who
- Census enumerators, government officials, lawyers, activists and opposition politicians are involved or quoted.
- What
- The 2027 census will include new questions that critics say effectively absorb the National Population Register and could facilitate a National Register of Citizens.
- Where
- India, with particular concern reported in Assam and Bengal.
- When
- Population enumeration is scheduled to begin in September in snowbound parts of North India; enumeration in Bengal is scheduled for the following year.
- Why
- The stated purpose of the census is to collect population and socioeconomic data, but critics fear the new questions could enable citizenship investigations.
Critics and Opposition
Legal Safeguards and Official Process
Purpose of the questions
Critics and Opposition
Activists, lawyers and opposition politicians fear that parental, religious and identity information could be used to investigate citizenship and prepare a National Register of Citizens.
Legal Safeguards and Official Process
The census is formally intended to collect statistical information about India’s population, housing and social conditions; the article does not report a government explanation for the expanded questionnaire.
Data protection
Critics and Opposition
Lawyer Talha Abdul Rahman argues that detailed data could be misused, including through undisclosed profiling, and notes that India lacks a data protection law, according to the article.
Legal Safeguards and Official Process
Census records have stronger statutory protections than National Population Register data: the Census Act restricts inspection and says census entries cannot be used as grounds for government action or as evidence in proceedings.
Political and social impact
Critics and Opposition
Activists and opposition parties warn that the exercise could revive anxieties and protests associated with the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Population Register and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens.
Legal Safeguards and Official Process
The article reports no direct response from BJP representatives, several of whom declined interview requests; supporters’ substantive arguments for the questionnaire are therefore not presented.
Key facts
- New questions
- At least 12 of the 40 population-enumeration questions have not appeared in a previous census.
- Questions repeated from NPR
- Ten of the new questions were part of the National Population Register exercise planned for 2020.
- Parental details
- Enumerators will collect parents’ names, dates of birth, places of birth and religions.
- Other identification details
- The questionnaire includes details concerning nationality and documents such as passports, Aadhaar and voter cards.
- NPR history
- The National Population Register was first created in 2010 and updated in 2015.
- Reported NPR coverage
- The National Population Register reportedly contains information on about 119 crore residents.
- Census privacy rule
- Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948 restricts inspection of records made by census officers and limits their use as evidence.
- Assam NRC outcome
- The Assam National Register of Citizens excluded more than 19 lakh people from its final list, most of them Hindus.
Quotes
Talha Abdul Rahman
Supreme Court advocate-on-record handling data privacy and citizenship cases.
“There is a grave danger that the census is becoming an instrument not of collecting information but of finding grounds to exclude and expel targeted communities, especially Muslims, from citizenship.”
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“Unless you have a law, what can you do about violations? How will you deal with the problems that might arise? You are getting into a domain that is very private and personal.”
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Sources
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