Population register creation from April 1

The process to create a national population register (NPR) with personal details of the 1.03 billion Indians would begin on April 1 and run simultaneously with Census 2011. It will be one of the biggest exercises in the world to count, identify and issue ID-cards to people.

The home ministry initiative aims at bringing homogeneity between NPR and unique identity (UID) numbers to be allotted by the Nandan Nilekani-led UID authority, but there are certain grey areas. Who will issue the identity cards and to whom is yet to be decided, a senior ministry official admitted.

UID numbers would be allotted on the basis of the data gathered in NPR. While every person will be included in NPR, only those above 15 would be eligible for biometric sample collection. Similarly, ID-cards would be issued only to persons above 18. A UID number would be given to each person and would find a place on the identity cards to be issued subsequently.

The NPR exercise would entail gathering details, including biometrics such as photographs, finger prints and irises of people.

In the first phase, house-listing and housing census would be done from April 1 to September 30, 2010. The exercise will enable enumerators to gather all details about a household, including amenities enjoyed by its members and the material used in the construction of the dwelling. In the second phase, population enumeration would be carried out from February 9 to 28, 2011.

House-listing in Maharashtra would be held on May 1 along with Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Punjab, while the exercise would be held in Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu on April 21.

Home minister P Chidambaram said, “The exercise has nothing to do with conferring citizenship rights and officials are not required to seek proof of nationality or citizenship from anyone, since NPR is only a register of residents and the nationality being canvassed in the form is only as per the declaration of the respondent.”

Minister of state for home Ajay Maken, who is in-charge of the process, said the exercise will involve 35 states, 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils, 7,742 towns, 6,08,786 villages, 24 crore households, 1.2 billion people and over 2.5 million field functionaries. The census is likely to cost Rs2,200 crore and NPR Rs3,756 crore, but it will make the country more secure, he said.