National Register of Citizens

Assam, being a border state with unique problems of illegal immigration, had a register of citizens created for it in 1951 based on the 1951 census data. However, it was not maintained afterwards. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983 was then passed by the Parliament, creating a separate tribunal process for identifying illegal migrants in Assam. The Supreme Court of India struck it down as unconstitutional in 2005, after which the Government of India agreed to update the Assam NRC. Following unsatisfactory progress on the process of updating the Assam NRC for over a decade, the Supreme Court started directing and monitoring the process in 2013. The final updated NRC for Assam, published on 31 August 2019, contained 31 million (3.1 crore) names out of its population of 33 million (3.3 crore), leaving out 1.9 million (19 lakh) applicants, rendering them potentially stateless. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has championed the NRC exercise, did not find the results meeting its expectations. It believes that several legitimate citizens were excluded while many illegal migrants were included. The BJP has promised to implement the NRC for all of India in its election manifesto for the 2019 Indian general election. According to the Citizenship Rules, 2003, the central government can issue an order to prepare the National Population Register (NPR) and create the NRC based on the data gathered in it. The 2003 amendment further states that the local officials would then decide if the person's name will be added to the NRC or not, thereby deciding their citizenship status. No new rules or laws are needed to conduct this exercise in the whole of India. ==Legal and regulatory provisions==

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 (numbered "Act 6 of 2004") added the following clause to the Citizenship Act, 1955: The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, formulated under the Act specify: As explained by the Ministry of Home Affairs in December 2018, "The Citizenship Act of 1955 provides for compulsory registration of every citizen of India and issuance of National Identity Card to him. The Citizenship Rules of 2003, framed under the Citizenship Act of 1955, prescribe the manner of preparation of the National Register of Citizens. There is a special provision under the Rules to prepare the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam which is application-based and distinct from the rest of India where the process is enumeration-based." ==Difference from National Population Register (NPR) ==

The National Population Register (NPR) is the register with detailed records of all the people and includes both the citizens and the non-citizens in any rural or urban area of India. In contrast, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is the register of details about Indian citizens residing in India and outside India. NPR is not a citizenship enumeration drive, as it would record even a foreign national staying in a locality for more than six months. NPR is a population registrar and not a citizens' registrar like NRC. Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, as a response in the Rajya Sabha, that was released on 26 November 2014 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India stated that "the NPR is the first step towards creation of National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) by verifying the citizenship status of every usual residents." Residents of a locality living there for at least six months with plans to continue their residence for another six months or more are included into the list of NPR. It is prepared as per the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 (passed by the BJP led government under Vajpayee). The listing is done at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level. Every "usual resident of India" is required to register in the NPR. According to the Citizenship Rules, 2003, the centre can issue an order to prepare the NPR and create the NRC based on the data gathered in the NPR. On 18 June 2014, then Home Minister Rajnath Singh had given instructions "to take NPR project to its logical conclusion which is creation of National Register of Indian Citizens". The NPR planned for 2020 will also include more details such as the place of birth of the parents, last place of residence and the serial number for official documents. ==National Social Registry==

The National Social Registry will either be a single, searchable Aadhaar-seeded database, or "a cluster of multiple databases" that use Aadhaar numbers to integrate religion, caste, income, property, education, Civil status, or marital status, employment, disability and family-tree data of each single citizen. it'll automatically update itself in real-time. ==Implementation==

On 24 December 2019, the Central Cabinet approved for updating the NPR, marking one of the first steps in implementing the NRC. The NPR is scheduled to take place in April 2020 throughout India (except Assam). Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 December 2019 stated that "there has been no discussion on NRC anywhere... we only had to implement it in Assam to follow Supreme Court directives." The CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat alleged it to be"disinformation" by the government. Karat clarified that the NPR was the first step of the NRC process. On 31 July 2019, the Registrar General of Citizen Registration had issued the notification to prepare and update the NPR. The timeline for this was announced to be between 1 April 2020 and 30 September 2020. As per the NPR exercise, an enumeration will be carried out throughout the country (except Assam) by visiting every house for "collection of information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of the Local Registrar". According to the procedure announced through the "Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003", the list of NPR will undergo due verification and it will form the basis of the local register of Indian citizens. ==Detention Centres==

According to the Section 3(2)(c) of The Foreigners Act, 1946, the central government can deport people of foreign countries who are staying illegally in India. One of the first detention centres had come up in Assam during the tenure of the Congress government in 2008. In 2018, activists filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India and brought to its notice the condition of the families separated from each other and locked separately in the six existing detention centres of Assam. It also clarified the difference between a prison and a detention centre. One of the centres at Lampur is being operated under the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). The Special Branch of Delhi Police supervises the ward holding the Pakistanis, while people of other nationalities are under the watch of the FRRO. FRRO and Delhi police both work under the Central Home Ministry. The centre has 10-feet high walls, barbed wires with watchtowers in two corners of the compound. • Maharashtra Detention Centre is being constructed at Nerul in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra in a plot of land. • Punjab Detention Centre is currently being built in Goindwal Sahib in Tarn Taran district and is planned for completion in May 2020. AS of 2019, the foreigners are kept in a separate enclosure at Central Jail in Amritsar. In 2011, the Congress government built three more camps in the region. The detention center covers approximately square feet (about the size of seven football grounds) and was planned to have fifteen storeys. It was planned to be ready by December 2019. ==CAA and NRC protests==

CAA and NRC protests are a series of protests in India against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which was enacted into law on 12 December 2019, and against the nationwide implementation of the NRC. Protesters in all regions are concerned that the upcoming compilation of the National Register of Citizens might be used to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship. As of 12 January 2020, activists have continued to protest the act on the streets, with a lot of individuals carrying placards criticizing the act as well as the government. ==See also==