Asking an aged individual about the date and place of birth of his parents, particularly if they are deceased, and asking people about their mother tongue while updating the database from April have become the two main sore points with states which are opposed to the National Population Register (NPR).
Sources privy to the two-day meeting of chief secretaries and director of census operations of states convened by the home ministry said these two entries into the register have become the sticking points in the smooth conduct of the NPR, which will take place along with Census 2021, beginning from April.
“If these two entries are omitted, the NPR can still be carried out. Why do we need to ask an 80- year-old man or woman to remember where their parents were born? Similarly, how does it matter which language is their mother tongue? If the NPR has a specific purpose of rolling out government benefits to individuals by identifying them, their identity does not depend on either of these entries,” said a senior official who refused to be named.
The NPR is a sore point with opposition-ruled states, particularly West Bengal and Kerala who sent their directors of census operations to attend the meeting. However, no state government officials from these two states attended the meeting.
As the final questionnaire for the NPR is being finalised, officials said lessons have been drawn from the previous updation exercise and the new format does not ask for PAN card details of citizens. The government is also making it optional for the individuals to share Aadhaar card details.
However, the pre-test to the proposed NPR exercise threw up newer concerns which are yet to be addressed. During the pre-test, sharing of mother tongue and place and date of birth of parents saw poor response . “In the final NPR exercise, if most people leave these columns blank, then it will be a futile exercise,” said another official.
The official said the pre-test is conducted to give an insight into the responses people may give, which are then studied by the office of the registrar general of India to move forward to get maximum responses from people and make the exercise successful.
Census officials felt that most individuals do not mind sharing their own date and place of birth. But when it came to the illiterate, aged or deceased, the information of their parents date and place of birth becomes a problem area as responses are not as forthcoming as other entries.
Officials said if the NPR is formulated by addressing these two concerns, the road ahead may not only become easy for the enumerators to gather details during the census exercise as well as the NPR, but also allay fears of chief ministers of opposition-ruled states who have put the process on hold.