In a bid to materialise the nationwide National Register of Citizens, the Union Home Ministry is contemplating set up of an all-inclusive national database of all Indian citizens.
A cabinet note and a bill moved by the ministry have revealed that the current plan encompasses registration of the births and deaths of all citizens at the national level. At present, this database is under control of the respective state governments through local registrars.
The last proposal of linking the Aadhaar card with the voter ID card, though voluntary, was met with stiff opposition in parliament when the Election Commission recommended amending the Representation of People Act.
Integrated National Database Plan
Centre now intends to integrate this database with the population register and electoral rolls, Aadhaar card, ration card, passport and driving licences and has moved a cabinet note to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act.
The Registrar General of India will be bestowed with the responsibility to maintain this database and will be working with chief registrars in states to maintain it.
It will periodically update it with various agencies in charge of Aadhaar, ration cards, electoral rolls, passports and driving licences.
The note suggests the government intends to march ahead with Union Home Minister Amit Shah's announcement of a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC), to the immigrants that the government will deem illegal, by integrating and updating the National Population Register.
NRC-CAA Controversy
The announcement of the plan to create a nationwide NRC was for Assam alongside the highly controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which had sparked massive protests across the country nearly three years ago.
Critics then came up with the thought that coupled with CAA, which was in favor of granting citizenship to any refugee hailing from neighbouring countries if they had moved to India before 2015 but only if they were not Muslims, the NRC process could result in the persecution of the minority community.
The NRC-like move resurfaced after a prolonged pause owing to the Covid-19 pandemic which kept the census operations on hold and made the need of a special sub-registrar to take care of spot death registration during disasters very conspicuous..
The cabinet is expected to take up this proposal shortly and the amendment bill is expected to be introduced in the next session of parliament, government officials said.
